Alumni Share Tips and Insights on Pursuing Clinical Licensure
Last Wednesday, April 17, we had the pleasure of welcoming back Ari Borinsky ’17, Psychotherapist at Insight Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Jennifer Stefanik ’18, DBT Therapist at the Koch Center, and Tonia Spence ’02, Senior Director of Early Childhood Services at the Jewish Board, to share their unique experiences, insights, and advice on obtaining clinical licensure as social workers.
The panel discussion, which was moderated by Mental Health Caucus Leader Ashley Leeds ’20, highlighted the importance of proactively inquiring about clinical hours and supervision during the job search process, confiding in peers for additional supervision, consultation, and support, and taking advantage of panels and workshops led by professionals in the field to further develop relevant knowledge and skills.
Also addressed was the process of managing expectations, including having a realistic understanding of what early career clinicians should know or be able to do in their first jobs or in specific organizations, as well as the uncertainty and anxiety that comes from starting anew as clinical social workers.
The Office of Career Services and Leadership Management and Mental Health Caucus would like to extend our sincere gratitude to our panelists and attendees for creating an informative event for all!
Alumni Panel: Journey to the “C” | Wednesday, April 17
The Office of Career Services and Leadership Management and Mental Health Caucus invite all interested students to attend Journey to the “C”, a panel event featuring alumni from various clinical backgrounds and work experiences, on Wednesday, April 17 from 12:15 to 1:45 pm in Room 301. This will be a great opportunity to network in an intimate setting and gain insight into obtaining clinical licensure.
Speakers include:
- Ari Borinsky, LCSW ‘15, Psychotherapist at Insight Psychiatry & Psychotherapy
- Jennifer Stefanik, LSW ‘17, DBT Therapist at Koch Center
- Tonia M. Spence, LCSW ‘02, MSEd, Senior Director of Early Childhood Services at the Jewish Board
Register via Career Connect
Light refreshments will be served.
Please reach out to Ashley Leeds at [email protected] with any thoughts, questions, concerns, dietary restrictions, or necessary accommodations.
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES: Columbia University makes every effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities. If you require disability accommodations to attend an event at Columbia University, please contact the Office of Disability Services at (212) 854-2388 or [email protected] at least 5 days in advance of the event.
Speaker Bios
Ari Borinsky, LCSW ‘15
Psychotherapist at Insight Psychiatry & Psychotherapy
I was born and raised in suburban New Jersey. I attended undergrad at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN where I majored in Philosophy & Spanish Literature. After college I moved to Brazil where I taught English and studied Portuguese. I then joined the Peace Corps and served for two years in El Salvador. My title in the Peace Corps was a Rural Health & Sanitation volunteer although in essence my job description was that of international social worker. I now run a small non-profit that raises money for kids to attend college in El Salvador. See: www.elprogresoproject.org
I returned to the New York Metro area and attended law school for a brief period before dropping out and finding my career path as a social worker. At CSSW my first-year field internship was at a senior citizen community center in Brownsville, Brooklyn. My second-year internship was at the Roberto Clemente Center working as a bilingual family therapist. I took my social work licensing exam upon immediately graduating CSSW. I then spent one year working at the non-profit Partnership with Children which partners with NYC public schools and provides in-school counseling services. I then left for full-time private practice at a clinic in Jackson Heights, Queens called Dr. Szuster Psychiatry. I continue to work at Dr. Szuster’s clinic twice a week and run my own private practice in Greenpoint, Brooklyn the other three days a week. I accrued all my necessary clinical hours and passed my LCSW in October 2018.
I have completed trainings in TF-CBT, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and EMDR.
Jennifer Stefanik, LSW ‘17
DBT Therapist at Koch Center
Jennifer Stefanik, LSW, graduated from CSSW in May 2017, and while at CSSW, was a student of the CSSW Dialectical Behavior Therapy Training (DBT) Program directed by Dr. Andre Ivanoff. Jennifer’s 1st year internship was at South Mountain Elementary School in the Maplewood/South Orange School District in New Jersey where she worked with students aged 7-11 on emotion regulation and social skills. Her 2nd year internship was at Long Island Jewish Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, NY and was through the DBT Training Program. While at Zucker Hillside Hospital, Jennifer provided outpatient DBT (individual and group) to adults dealing with chronic mental health issues, including borderline personality and emotion dysregulation.
Since graduation, Jennifer has been working towards her clinical licensure by working full-time for The Koch Center, a private group DBT practice located in New Jersey. Jennifer works as a DBT therapist for children, adolescents, families, and adults where her work consists of conducting individual DBT sessions, running DBT groups, and serving as a program coordinator for the DBT Child and Social Skills programs. Jennifer is passionate about providing clients and their families with psycho-education about Borderline Personality Disorder and DBT to help reduce the stigma of both personality disorders and mental health in general. Jennifer is hopeful towards obtaining her clinical licensure in early 2020. With clinical licensure, Jennifer plans to continue working with DBT populations, as well as expanding her practices to clients who typically do not have access to DBT. A long-term goal that Jennifer has is to open a DBT center within the tri-state area that takes insurance, and that follows the evidence-based DBT model to fidelity to provide more accessible treatment to mental health consumers who may not otherwise be able to afford treatment.
One piece of advice that Jennifer has for MSW students is to be proactive with LSW/LMSW licensure. Start applying for licensure early on in your 2nd year so that when graduation comes, you can already have most of the process complete, and can be ready to start any prospective job opportunities
Tonia M. Spence, LCSW ‘02, MSEd
Senior Director of Early Childhood Services, the Jewish Board
Tonia M. Spence, LCSW, MSEd, believes in the power of healthy relationships in shaping young children’s lives. She is a clinician, educator, presenter and advocate who has served children and families for 17+ years. As a new clinician, Tonia’s passion to learn led her to a Fellowship program at Yale’s Child Development Center Outpatient Clinic in New Haven, where she was able to strengthen her clinical understanding of young children. Being in New Haven, where the dichotomy of wealth and poverty was so evident, Tonia recognized how racial tension and stress added an additional layer to the trauma of the children and families she was serving. She understood that only with the additional lens of race, class and privilege could she truly serve children and families well.
Tonia is a leader in the field of zero to three who has worked tirelessly to integrate her knowledge as a social worker and educator into an interdisciplinary approach to teach clinicians, educators and students how to apply a lens of racial stress to assessing, diagnosing, and treating young children who have experienced trauma. She is passionate about supporting families through challenges and firmly believes that engagement is the foundation of social work.
Tonia holds a Masters in Special Education from Bank Street College of Education and a Masters in Social Work from Columbia School of Social Work. She is currently the Senior Director of Early Childhood Services at the Jewish Board (JB) and is a co-leader of the Administrators of Color group, where she works along with colleagues to impact all staff’s racial literacy.
Rigdzin Pema Collins ’19 Wins Student Writing Scholarship
Congratulations to Rigdzin Pema Collins ’19 on receiving the 2018 Diana List Cullen Memorial First Year MSW Student Writing Scholarship from the Metropolitan Chapter of the New York State Society for Clinical Social Workers (NYSSCSW)!
Every year, the Society offers a $500 scholarship and year-long membership to one MSW student from each of the six social work schools in New York City in recognition of exceptional clinically-oriented writing done in the first year of their respective programs. Rigdzin’s paper, “Adult Psychology – Case Formulation,” was selected based on her thoughtful and humanistic reflection and approach to working with a client with a hoarding disorder.
Rigdzin was honored among other scholarship recipients at the awards reception held on Wednesday, November 14 at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in midtown Manhattan where they all presented a synopsis of their papers. We are proud of Ridgzin and honored to have her represent CSSW!
About NYSSCSW
NYSSCSW is a professional association for clinical social work psychotherapists, MSW students, institute candidates, new professionals, and other mental health professionals committed to maintaining standards of professional education and practice in clinical social work psychotherapy in New York State. The Metropolitan Chapter covers New York, Brooklyn and Bronx Counties.
The Society organizes various educational activities and opportunities to interact and network directly with one another regarding referrals, office space rentals, managed care and insurance concerns, practice issues, educational activities sponsored by other organizations, and other issues of interest to our members. They also manage a listserv through which they communicate these activities as well as other invaluable resources.
To learn more about the Society and Met Chapter and benefits of membership, visit their homepage.
Scholarship to Attend 2019 American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW) Conference
Interested in psychoanalysis or the intersectionality of psychoanalysis and social work practice?
The American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW) is hosting its biennial national conference, “Intrigue, Insight, Inquiry: Through Today’s Psychoanalytic Lens”, in Durham, North Carolina in March of 2019 (March 28-31), and offering a Conference Scholarship to make it feasible for MSW students to attend.
Learn more about the conference here.
Conference Scholarship Award
- Waiver of the conference fee
- Opportunities to interact with other students and senior AAPCSW members at the conference
- Free membership in AAPCSW for a period of two years
- Assignment to an “AAPCSW mentor” who can serve as a resource around issues of professional development, becoming involved in post-conference AAPCSW activities, and deeper exploration of the psychoanalytic perspective in clinical social work. (Please note, AAPCSW mentors do not provide students with clinical/professional supervision.)
Application Process
To apply, interested students should submit a one-page statement about why they would like to attend the conference and how attendance would enrich their lives in social work school and beyond. Applicants should articulate a compelling argument about the how the psychoanalytic perspective is relevant to their current and future identities as clinical social workers.
Statements must be submitted by January 15, 2019 via email to:
Scott Graybow, PhD, LCSW
Chair, Student Outreach Ad-Hoc Committee
[email protected]
See below for additional details and contact Dr. Graybow directly with questions.
*Please note that you can also attend the conference at no cost by volunteering. Contact Volunteer Committee Chair, Barry Ostrow, MD, at [email protected] or Conference Chair, Penny Rosen at [email protected] regarding this option.
About the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW)
The American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW) is an 850-member, not-for-profit, professional membership organization. Founded in 1980, AAPCSW seeks to achieve practice parity between clinical social workers and other mental health professionals engaged in the practice, research, and teaching of psychoanalysis. It brings to this effort an appreciation for the intersectionality of psychoanalysis and social work through acknowledgement and exploration of their shared emphasis on respect for the individual and commitment to safe, effective clinical care.
AAPCSW achieves these goals through a range of nation-wide professional and intellectual activities that promote psychoanalytic education, advance clinical social work, facilitate the production and dissemination of knowledge, and advocate for high standards of practice. These activities include a biennial national conference, regional conferences, a national listserv, and publications including an online monograph and a tri-annual newsletter. The organization is an active member of the Psychoanalytic Consortium that is composed of AAPCSW, the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis (AAPDP), Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association, and the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS). Through membership in the Consortium, AAPCSW ensures the social work profession has a voice in critical conversations about the future of psychoanalytic education and practice.