Getting Started
I would be happy to arrange at no charge a 10-15 minute phone call with you as you are trying to find the right therapist. Trying to choose a psychotherapist can involve quite of bit of research and sorting and, once you’ve done that, you’ll want to select a few clinicians to call and interview on the phone if possible. When you decide to make an initial appointment, you can think of that session as a consultation to see how you feel about the therapist and the type of therapy they may recommend. You should get a lot out of that first session even if you decide not to continue with that particular clinician.
I would be happy to set set-up with you a 15-minute phone consultation at no charge as you are trying to find the right therapist. You can send me a request for this phone call via this website. Then, in our call you can ask me some questions, and I will ask you a couple of questions and then we will make a plan. If you decide to make an initial appointment, I am usually able to get you in within a few days time.
There are many benefits of a good psychotherapy, but there are a few parameters that need to be met in order for it to really work. It requires a decision to commit to the therapeutic process, and for you to enter into a collaborative stance with your therapist. The therapist should give you their opinion of your diagnosis if you have one, a suitable treatment plan, and of whether your therapy is best as a shorter / consulting type, or a medium length of 6 months to one year working together, or a longer and more intensive type. Once you and the therapist have decided to work together, you will need to commit to regular weekly sessions, and you should make sure to understand the fee structure that your therapist uses so that you can decide if you can afford an on-going psychotherapy with him or her. Psychotherapy can be expensive both in terms of time, money and energy, but it is a wonderful investment in the rest of yours and perhaps your family’s life. If you need it, there is no substitute for a good psychotherapy.
More about Dr. Caroline Baltzer
Dr. Caroline Baltzer is a psychologist in private practice located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her office is in a Victorian office building, a 10-minute walk from Harvard Square. Dr. Baltzer is licensed in clinical psychology and diagnoses and treats general mental health problems and disorders, and conducts diagnostic evaluations, consultations and psychotherapy for individuals, couples and families both in the office and via videoconferencing.
Specific areas of focus and expertise include clinical psychology, couples and family psychotherapy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, psychological trauma (PTSD), EMDR, psychodrama, attachment disorders, psychological assessments, clinical hypnosis, Relational-Cultural therapy, Internal Family Systems, ADHD, bipolar spectrum disorders and Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT). Dr. Baltzer’s depth and breadth of training in these frameworks allows her the flexibility to select the approach or combination of approaches that research has shown to be the most effective for a given individual’s unique combination of needs.
Dr. Baltzer’s intensive training in varied approaches in the field since 1991 allows her to use a true integrative treatment approach, rather than simply an ‘eclectic’ approach. Dr. Baltzer is therefore able to construct a treatment plan using psychodynamic, developmentally-informed, cognitive-behavioral, hypnotherapeutic, and systemic approaches to psychotherapy, along with some recent developments in the field of positive psychology which has been shown to be highly effective. In this type of work, the focus is not just on symptoms (the negative), but equally on thriving (the positive) with a greater, more optimal connection to the context in which a person lives.
Education and Training
Dr. Baltzer graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in Philosophy and English and Minor in Fine Arts. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology at The State University of New York at Buffalo, and completed her internship in CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School (currently ranked the #2 psychiatric hospital in the U.S. by U.S. News and World Report).
After completing her internship, Dr. Baltzer also completed two post-doctoral fellowships:
- Fellowship in Psychoanalytically-oriented Psychodynamic Psychotherapy directed by Joan Wheelis, M.D. and Michael Hollander, Ph.D. at Two Brattle Center in Cambridge, MA. Focus on the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder.
- Fellowship in Psychological Trauma directed by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. at The Trauma Center, The Arbor Hospital, Boston University Medical School in Brookline, MA. Focus on the treatment of P.T.S.D. and Dissociative Disorders.
In addition, Dr. Baltzer has advanced training in the following areas:
- Externship in the Treatment of Attachment Disruption and Disorders in Adults directed by Daniel Brown, Ph.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School.
- Externship in Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) directed by Anthony Bateman, M.D. through McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
- EMDR – level II : The Trauma Center, Brookline, MA
- Internal Family Systems : Directed by Janina Fisher, Ph.D.
Licensure
Dr. Baltzer is licensed by the State of Massachusetts to practice Clinical Psychology and is listed in The National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology.
Research
Dr. Baltzer is currently involved in a research group led by Dan Brown, Ph.D. which is developing a step-wise treatment protocol for the treatment of adult attachment pathology in personality and dissociative disorder patients. These protocols emphasize working on secure attachment as not simply the absence of relational disturbance but on developing and holding a deeply positive internal map for healthy secure intimacy that gives the individual a sense of being secure in the relationship and able to grow, develop and flourish within the security of the therapy relationship.
Affiliations
- Board Member, Daniel Brown, Ph.D. and Associates, Newton, MA
- Member, American Psychological Association
- Consulting Psychologist, Two Brattle Center, Cambridge, MA