Psychotherapy  ·  New York City

Chronic, Catastrophic Illness
Cancer & Caregiving

A serious diagnosis changes everything. Whether you're a patient, survivor, or caregiver, you don't have to carry this alone — or explain yourself to get started.

If you're carrying something heavy — whether it's medical trauma, grief, addiction, a crisis of faith, or simply a life that no longer fits — there's a place for you here.

Galileo's moon phase drawings, public domain

"Every phase of life — however hard — carries the possibility of growth, meaning, and renewal."

Galileo Galilei · Sidereus Nuncius · 1610

Cancer patients & survivors

Navigating diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, medical trauma, and the identity questions that come with all of it.

Chronic illness & caregivers

Finding agency alongside a condition that doesn't end — and support for those who give everything to someone else.

Spirituality & meaning

Integrating Stoic philosophy, Eastern traditions, and spiritual inquiry into the work of healing and self-understanding.

A different kind
of therapist

Before becoming a therapist, Andrew spent a year as a hospital chaplain in Brooklyn — sitting with patients and families at some of the hardest moments of their lives. As a cancer survivor himself, he brings lived experience to this work that no amount of training can replicate. His practice weaves together psychodynamic therapy, EMDR (particularly effective for medical trauma), mindfulness, Stoic philosophy, and spiritual inquiry — meeting each person where they are.

"Therapy is not designed to make you feel good. It's designed to give you more agency over your own life."

— Andrew J. Rosenthal, MDiv, LCSW

15+

Years practice

NYC

In-person

NY

Telehealth

Galileo moon phases

"Therapy is a vital part of how we process being human — helping us with everything from fear to wonder, happiness to grief, victory to struggle."

— Andrew J. Rosenthal, MDiv, LCSW

Ready to take the first step?

A free 20-minute consultation — no pressure, no commitment. Just a conversation to see if working together feels right.

Andrew J. Rosenthal
MDiv, LCSW

Andrew J. Rosenthal

MDiv — Union Theological Seminary at Columbia

Interfaith Relationships · 2009

MSW — Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College

Clinical Work with Individuals & Families · 2012

LCSW — New York State Licensed Clinical Social Worker

After studying comparative religion and earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary at Columbia, I spent a year as a hospital chaplain in Brooklyn. I sat with patients and families in some of the hardest moments of their lives — at bedsides, in waiting rooms, in the quiet after a difficult diagnosis. That year changed everything about how I understand suffering, resilience, and what human beings are capable of.

It led me to pursue clinical social work and, eventually, to build a practice centered on the people I feel most called to serve: those navigating the emotional terrain of serious physical illness.

Then cancer found me. I've had to do the work myself — rebuilding my relationship with my own body, sitting with uncertainty, finding my way back to a sense of purpose and agency. And after my recovery, I lost a parent to complications from cancer treatment — so I know this terrain from multiple sides, as patient, survivor, and caregiver. When someone comes to me exhausted from treatment, or hollowed out from caregiving, I'm not working from theory alone.

I'm a native New Yorker, shaped by years of travel and study — walking the Camino de Santiago solo, tracing the Ganges from its Himalayan source to the Bay of Bengal, studying social welfare policy at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. These experiences deepened my grounding in Stoic philosophy, Eastern traditions, and the spiritual dimensions of being human.

I believe therapy is not designed to make you feel good. It's designed to give you more agency over your own life.

I am also a playwright. Theater, like therapy, is fundamentally about bearing witness to the human experience — sitting with a story until it reveals something true. My work draws on the same instinct that brought me to psychotherapy: a deep belief that ordinary lives, told with honesty and care, matter.

Eagle Scout  · Boy Scouts of America · 1997

Angel of Care Award  · Catholic Health, Buffalo · 2007

Beatitudes Fellowship  · 2008

Bennett Fellowship  · Union Theological Seminary · Co-recipient · 2009

ACS LION  · American Cancer Society Leadership in Oncology Navigation

Volunteer Advocate  · Blood Cancer United · Advocacy Team & First Connect Program

Specialties

My practice is wide-ranging. I work with people navigating serious physical illness, medical trauma, caregivers, anyone wrestling with anxiety, depression, individuals on the ASD spectrum, grief, trauma, spirituality, and questions of meaning.

01

Cancer patients & survivors

Oncology support

A cancer diagnosis doesn't end when treatment does. Survivors often describe a disorienting period after finishing treatment — the world expects relief, but you may feel lost, anxious, or fundamentally changed. Patients in active treatment face fear, physical transformation, and living hour to hour. For many, a serious diagnosis is also a traumatic experience — one that lives in the body long after treatment ends.

I work with people at every stage — newly diagnosed, in treatment, post-treatment, and in long-term survivorship. This is some of the most meaningful work I do.

02

Chronic illness

Long-term illness

Living with a chronic condition means managing not just symptoms, but a constant negotiation between who you were and who you are now. Chronic illness often carries an invisible layer of medical trauma — the accumulated weight of procedures, diagnoses, and moments when the body felt like foreign territory. It can bring depression, anxiety, grief, and a profound sense of isolation — especially when the people around you can't fully see what you're carrying.

This work focuses on building agency and identity — not despite your illness, but alongside it.

03

Caregiver burnout & stress

Caregiver support

Caregiving for someone with a serious illness is one of the most demanding things a person can do — and one of the least supported. Caregiver burnout is real: the physical exhaustion, the emotional depletion, the guilt of having needs of your own, the grief of watching someone you love suffer.

04

Spirituality & meaning

Spiritual inquiry

My background in theology and comparative religion — and years of pilgrimage and study across traditions — informs a practice that incorporates the spiritual dimensions of being human. Whether you're wrestling with faith, loss of faith, or simply searching for meaning and purpose, this is work we can do together. I draw on Stoic philosophy, Eastern contemplative traditions, Christianity, and Judaism, seeking a common spiritual language with each person I work with.

05

Anxiety, depression & grief

General therapy

I work with individuals facing anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, addiction, and significant life transitions. Whether or not illness is involved, my approach remains the same: understanding how your past shapes your present, building agency, and finding a path forward that feels genuinely yours.

Approach & philosophy

"I encourage the client to direct the work, whether that's choosing the modality or asking me to be a more active or passive participant."

Psychodynamic therapy

Understanding the past

Exploring how your early experiences and unconscious patterns shape your present. By bringing these into awareness, we create real space for change — not just coping.

EMDR

Processing trauma

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is evidence-based and powerful for trauma — including medical trauma. Particularly useful for people who've suffered an acute trauma, PTSD, and embedded maladaptive beliefs.

REBT

Shifting thought patterns

Practical tools for examining the beliefs and thought patterns that drive emotional distress — and actively challenging and changing them. Practical, direct, and evidence-based.

Mindfulness & Stoic philosophy

Finding what you can control

Building the capacity to sit with difficulty without being overwhelmed — and gaining clarity about what is and isn't within your control. Drawn from both Eastern traditions and Stoic philosophy.

I encourage every client to maintain some form of movement practice — yoga, running, swimming, Tai Chi, whatever fits your life. The mind-body connection is not a metaphor. It's a mechanism, and healing happens in the body as much as the mind.

Group therapy

Group therapy offers something individual work can't — the experience of being truly witnessed by others who understand. I am currently developing group offerings and welcome your interest.

01

Healthcare Workers Support Group

Coming soon

Healthcare workers carry an extraordinary burden — the weight of others' suffering, moral injury, burnout, and grief that rarely gets named or witnessed. This group will offer a confidential space for doctors, nurses, social workers, and other providers to process their experience with peers who understand.

02

Chronic Illness Support Group

Coming soon

Living with a chronic condition can be profoundly isolating — particularly when the people around you can't fully see what you're carrying. This group will bring together people navigating serious and long-term illness to find solidarity, reduce isolation, and build tools for living alongside their condition.

03

Grief & Loss Support Group

Coming soon

Grief is not linear, and it is rarely well-supported by the world around us. This group will offer a space to process loss — of a person, a relationship, a diagnosis, a version of yourself — in the company of others who are also learning to carry what cannot be put down.

Interested in joining a group?

Reach out through the contact page to express your interest and be notified when groups launch.

From the practice

Reflections on therapy, illness, caregiving, spirituality, and what it means to live a meaningful life. New posts monthly.

Posts coming soon.

Check back shortly — or reach out directly if there's a topic you'd like Andrew to write about.

Let's talk

I offer a free 20-minute consultation — no pressure, no commitment. Just a conversation to see if working together feels right.

You don't need to have the right words or know exactly what you're looking for. Reach out, and we'll figure it out from there.

Location

In person · Downtown Brooklyn

Telehealth

Telehealth available across multiple states

Insurance

Accepts insurance via Alma & Headway

All inquiries are confidential and receive a response within 1–2 business days.