Belinda Bellet, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder and director of Brooklyn Heights Behavioral Psychology Associates (BHBA). She has been a community mental health advocate and therapist for almost two decades. Her influences are in large part due to education in attachment research and theory, behaviorism and Mindfulness meditation.

With almost two decades of evidenced-based behavioral therapy training under her belt, intensive trainings in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) through Behavioral Tech, LLC. and work in the model for 16 years, she is especially adept at treating complex cases. Her original studies in parent/child attachment work from an evolutionary and developmental psychology perspective deeply shaped her theoretical orientation. Dr. Bellet has advanced training in DBT for adults, teens, pre-teens and children along with advanced training in Parent Management Training (PMT) through the Parent Management Training Institute.

In 1999, Dr. Bellet came across Mindfulness as a treatment intervention, while researching her dissertation. Developed by John Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. (founder of the world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School), the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program stood out in contrast to other forms of treatment (CBT and psychoanalysis) for decreasing concomitant misery associated with pain and effectively increasing ones capacity to cope. Convinced by its efficacy, Dr. Bellet started incorporating these strategies into her personal and professional life. At the same time, she was intensively trained in DBT at NYU School of Medicine at Bellevue Hospital Center and was exposed again to Mindfulness as a primary treatment intervention, this time used for patients with severe emotional dysregulation and suicidality (DBT was developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan – a behavioral scientist and Zen Master). The coinciding exposure to and education in these two treatments for severe mind / body suffering laid the pathway for Dr. Bellet’s future. Of note, Dr. Bellet has advanced training in Acceptance Change Therapy (ACT) with Dr. Steven Hayes – another Mindfulness based therapy and has a variety of other influences, including traditional Zen meditation, the works of Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman, books and audio guided lectures and meditations by Sogyal Rinpoche, Pema Chodren, Dr. Tara Brach and most recently books, audios and meditations of Thich Nhat Hanh.

Dr. Bellet obtained her doctoral degree from The Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University and interned at NYU School of Medicine / Bellevue Hospital, where she was employed for several years and had simultaneous faculty appointments. Notably, Dr. Bellet was the clinical and co-director of the Interim Crisis Clinic at the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP) at Bellevue Hospital and also worked with FEMA on a post-911 program where she received extensive training in crisis and post disaster counseling with FEMA, the NYS Office of Mental Health, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She was appointed a crisis counselor for NYC employees in the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner, NYC Council Office under Mayor Bloomberg, NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation and for relief workers for the American Red Cross for those directly and indirectly affected by the 9/11 terrorist attack, Hurricane Katrina and the assassination of Council Member James Davis at City Hall. Dr. Bellet has also provided forensic evaluations and has testified in Federal Court on behalf of victims of torture seeking asylum and in Family Court on behalf of children in foster care seeking legal placement. She has also supervised, lectured, written about various clinical issues ranging from Mindfulness in clinical practice to interventions for high-risk patients and has presented papers at American Psychological Association Conferences.