Psychotherapy · New York City
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.
"Every phase of life — however hard — carries the possibility of growth, meaning, and renewal."
Galileo Galilei · Sidereus Nuncius · 1610
Navigating diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, medical trauma, and the identity questions that come with all of it.
Finding agency alongside a condition that doesn't end — and support for those who give everything to someone else.
Integrating Stoic philosophy, Eastern traditions, and spiritual inquiry into the work of healing and self-understanding.
Why this practice
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
"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
Get started
A free 20-minute consultation — no pressure, no commitment. Just a conversation to see if working together feels right.
About
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.
Recognition & service
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
Who I work with
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
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
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
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
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
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.
How I work
"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
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
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
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
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.
The mind-body connection
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.
Coming soon
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 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
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 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.
Writing
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.
Get in touch
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
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