About Dr. Diane Handlin, Ph.D.

How I work

I work as a practitioner of Clinical Psychology and have degrees from Columbia University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine as well as Parsons School of Design.

In addition to having an  Ed.M. in Career Counseling, and Master’s degrees in Literature and Art, I have a doctorate in Clinical Psychology and have worked as a clinical supervisor of doctoral students at the Graduate School of Applied an Professional Psychology at Rutgers University.

My psychotherapy approach

My educational background is broad and deep. Influenced by early readings of the great classics, I became deeply interested in the question of the causes of human suffering, how to alleviate them and to help individuals find paths to more satisfying lives of greater wholeness and well-being.

This led me to a deep investigation of the most important schools of modern psychology. As a practitioner of a relational approach to psychotherapy and strongly influenced by my background in Jung, family therapy and the most useful principles drawn from cognitive approaches, my focus is not on a method, but on you, my client.

Dimensions of my background

Earlier in my career, at the Pingry School, I worked as the Diversity Coordinator and Teacher of the History of Philosophy and Religion East and West and Ceramics. When I left there, I worked as a Staff Psychologist at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/UBHC, as well as a Consulting Psychologist to a number of Independent Schools. In addition, I have trained with Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Stress Reduction Program.

Having been a frequent public speaker and organizational consultant, I have given many professional lectures and offered workshops at numerous psychological organizations, schools,
and other venues.

These have encompassed a number of topics ranging from stress reduction, organizational renewal, gender issues and social cruelty, contemporary women’s stories and dreams, and how to live and work in more satisfying ways in an electronically driven world.

Publications

Some of my publications include Sex Roles, Working Woman Magazine, Independent School Magazine, The London Observer, Time-Life Books,
a number of Time-Inc. websites, and New Ideas in Psychology. I served as a guest editor and contributor to two issues of The New Jersey Psychologist on “Mindfulness and Psychotherapy” and have been repeatedly published in New Jersey Life magazine.

In addition to my private psychology practice in Metuchen, N.J., and as part of my separate educational work as the Founder and Executive Director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction center of NJ, I teach a separate educational program for which I am one of the few people in the world, and the only person in New Jersey who has been Certified by Jon Kabat-Zinn’s and Saki Santorelli’s Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School to do this.

For more information or to read my some of my publications, see the In Print section..

(Although Dr. Handlin is a licensed psychologist and was the first person in NJ Certified to teach MBSR, and has a separate psychology practice, please note that MBSR is an educational course and not psychotherapy. In addition, information contained in this document is informational and not to be construed as medical advice. If you suspect you have medical issues, please pursue appropriate treatment)