Vera Cohen, LMSW

I am a therapist, organizer, and visual artist. I approach therapy from a liberation-focused healing framework — exploring how systems of oppression contribute to and shape mental health concerns. Through this lens, we will integrate elements of IFS, DBT, relational therapy, narrative therapy, and other modalities. I view it as my role to assist clients in gaining insight into their thought processes and patterns, to learn to embody their emotional worlds, to empower them to recognize their existing strengths, and to help them access the tools they may not yet realize are available to them.

As a trans woman, I am particularly passionate about working with LGBTQ2IA+ individuals and couples of all ages while they navigate relationships, neurodivergence, trauma, oppression, sexuality, gender identity, kink, and CNM. My practice is informed by my experience providing care to LGBTQ2IA+ adolescents and young adults, children living with intellectual and developmental differences, people experiencing active suicidal ideation, as well as survivors of sexual and domestic violence while they seek care in the hospital emergency department. 

My work with children and adolescents is evidence-based, relational, and non-ABA. I strive to help young people develop their own voice and agency while learning to move through the world safely and effectively. Whether supporting children and adolescents through grief, major life changes, gender variance, social pressures, bullying, trauma, or neurodivergence, I implement many of the same skills and approaches that I use when working with adults; however, these modalities are adapted to meet the unique needs of younger clients. I have experience working with clients that use AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) devices.

I have an MSW from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College and a B.F.A in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design.