Dr. Auster's practice is rooted in the belief that intentional and compassionate self-work can result in greater joy and decreased overwhelm. At the center of her work, she believes that deepening awareness, compassionate accountability and recognition of patterns that are maladaptive can be life changing. She helps people manage and embrace multiple truths at once, such as loving parenthood and acknowledging the chaos and difficulty of competing demands, or familial relationships that can include both love and people who have limitations and faults.

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Dr. Auster has successfully helped clients navigating:
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• Divorce, co-parenting, and blended families

• Anxiety, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder and obsessive compulsive behavior

• Moving past trauma (both as defined as PTSD and relative to an individual's definition)

• Relationship challenges, including intimacy issues and communication challenges

• Job stress and difficulty with delegation and control

• Family dynamics, including parent/adult child relationships and reconciliation after estrangement/low contact

• Stress, burnout, overwhelm, and changes in phases of life that result in some identity change

• Parenting, including parenting high-needs kids, teenagers, and adult children (and issues of estrangement

• Complexity of aging, including perimenopause

• Body image issues and disordered eating

• Depression, low confidence, and self-worth issues

• Neurodiversity, including Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD

 

Dr. Auster is certified in, and has taught and employed, multiple treatment modalities but uses an integrated and tailored approach depending on your goals and needs. Some of the modalities that she incorporates most are:
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• Cognitive Processing Therapy

• Cognitive Behavioral Conjoint Therapy

• Motivational Interviewing

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 

• Mindfulness

• Self-regulation (and co-regulation for couples)

• Schema Therapy

• Interpersonal Therapy

• Gottman

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"Often our greatest gifts serve also as our weaknesses," Dr. Auster says. "Compassionately embracing personal needs when time is limited requires cognitive flexibility while still centering core values. Our work will help you process and learn to receive internal and external validation, making choices that may ultimately result in temporary feelings of guilt in order to avoid longer term resentment and contempt in interpersonal relationships. During therapy, you may confront points of pain in order to move forward, and in order to let go of the belief that you are responsible for other people’s emotional needs in order to be lovable."

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Some books that Dr. Auster recommends are Good Morning, Monster by Catherine Gildiner, Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg, The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, The Gift of Therapy by Irvin Yalom, and The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk.

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Dr. Auster has led multiple teams of mental health providers to encourage trauma sensitive needs, as well as identifying professionally how to be effective and also true to self-needs. This means acknowledging the needs of everyone in the therapy room, be that couples, individuals, or adult children/parents. ​

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Dr. Auster is from New York and currently resides in Texas. She is the proud mother of two active young boys and two young adult bonus children, spouse of another practicing clinical psychologist and professor, and deep lover of party planning with a theme.