Wayne A. Ayers

Dr. Wayne Ayers is a licensed clinical psychologist maintaining a video (and soon to be face to face) psychotherapy practice in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Dr. Ayers has years of experience working with trauma related disorders and PTSD while at the Veterans' Affairs Medical Center. At the VA he trained in a number of therapies to alleviate the impact of trauma and other disorders on one's life (Prolonged Exposure, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Modern Analytic Group Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Integrated Behavioral Couples Therapy). Dr. Ayers is also trained in Circling, Non-Violent Communication and Radical Honesty--all techniques design to facilitate interpersonal communication. Initially trained in a Client Centered/Rogerian approach, Dr. Ayers' professional development has encompassed years of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy groups, Gestalt workshops, AK Rice and Modern Analytic Groups. Through this he has come to believe in the power of psychotherapy to facilitate change in people's lives and to understand that effective psychotherapy is less about the technique and more about the motivation, commitment and chemistry of the therapist client dyad.

Dr. Ayers is a straight, white cis-gendered male who continues to examine how his priviledge and social location affects this work with all persons and particularly those in marginalized communities. Psychotherapy offers a way to deconstruct how power gets located in certain persons, ideas or fetishes--often in unknown ways--and how it may be released and harnessed for personal and social change. This is a necessary and welcome conversation to promote healing.

Ultimately psychotherapy has its roots in an existential/spiritual understanding of human growth and development. While this may or may not be a focus of the psychotherapeutic work it remains a cornerstone to the understanding framework and goal of self healing.