About Elizabeth
Elizabeth Kotkin is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 35 years of practice in New York and California. She focuses on anxiety alongside depression, trauma, grief, and life changes. Her style is warm and straightforward, aimed at helping people find practical ways to cope.
She uses clear conversations to identify what feels most urgent. Sessions often include short, directed exercises and steps clients can try between meetings. That can look like tracking thoughts, experimenting with small behavior changes, or practicing grounding techniques for stress and sleeplessness.
Background and approach
Kotkin draws on approaches such as client-centered work and cognitive behavioral methods to guide the work. She also uses motivational interviewing to support change and trauma-focused tools when past harm affects current life. The mix is chosen to fit each person's situation and goals.
She has long experience helping people with relationship stress, intimacy-related concerns, parenting strain, and family-of-origin issues. Addiction, codependency, and recovery are also areas she addresses with practical strategies and steady support. Clients gain tools for managing panic, social anxiety and phobias, and for coping with grief or major transitions.
The therapist aims to help people regain routine, improve sleep, and reduce overwhelming shame or isolation. Elizabeth works in English and practices from New York. Her approach is collaborative - she helps people set realistic steps, revises them as needed, and focuses on steady progress rather than quick fixes.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and following the person's lead. The therapist offers empathy and reflection to help people clarify what matters and make decisions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps identify unhelpful thoughts and test small behavior changes to reduce anxiety and improve sleep. It is useful for panic, social anxiety, and low mood. Motivational Interviewing supports people who want to change a habit or address addiction by strengthening their own reasons to change and planning manageable steps.Choosing an approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals, try methods that fit those goals, and adjust the plan as needed. Clients are invited to give feedback so the work matches their pace and priorities.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video is useful for deeper conversations and interactive exercises. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text let people send quick updates or handle brief check-ins between sessions. These options help people fit therapy into busy days and keep momentum between meetings.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Midlife crisis
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 35 years
- Licensed
- New York, California
- Languages
- English
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