Cassidy Macca Psychotherapy, LMHC

I have always had a strong empathetic base, feeling deeply for others and wanting so badly from an early age to help those I saw suffering. I started taking psychology classes in high school and my passion for mental health took off. I continued my path at the Honors College at Pace University, studying psychology, sociology, anthropology, and women and gender studies. I followed this by studying mental health counseling at Fordham University and interning at a low income clinic in Chelsea, providing group therapy and individual counseling. I worked closely with our team to provide integrated care that addressed the multifaceted needs of the clients. Post graduation, I continued my work with individual clients, running an anger management group and working on a grant project that provided preventative services to the population at high-risk for psychosis. This shaped my values as a therapist, encouraging me to make therapy accessible for all and break the stigma of mental health treatment.

A typical intake with me consists of rapport-building and information-gathering; together, we will explore your history, symptoms, and what has brought you into therapy while developing treatment goals. We will review goals every 3-6 months to assess progress. At times, I may assign homework to encourage further learning outside of session, but this is dependent on you and your needs. I am highly eclectic and flexible, and I work to integrate kindness, compassion, and understanding into each session while also building a strong therapeutic relationship along the way. I want to continue to fight the stigma of therapy in our world today and empower all to take charge of their mental health. I look forward to being alongside you for your journey!

I was involved in a grant project called ProSPECT, working to implement comprehensive evidence-based clinical services for youth and young adults who are at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P). The CHR-P population is one that was previously very underserved, and it was exciting to be able to work on a new project with the goal to prevent or delay the transition to threshold psychosis while providing clients with better skills to improve overall functioning and develop insight and resilience. I enjoyed seeing such integration of services — including in-depth assessments, introductory CBT, and group and family-based CBT — highlighting the broad scope of mental health treatment and recognizing how modalities can work together to address the wide variety of needs of a client while looking at both the environmental and biological aspects of mental health. I am very passionate about further work within this population and destigmatizing psychotic symptoms to lessen the resistance to getting help.