Psychology

Our goal is to enhance well-being, understand and improve mental health, and provide effective interventions for individuals dealing with life’s challenges.

Cayuga Psychology is not currently accepting patients

About

Cayuga Health Psychology is a therapy practice with only one current provider, Dr. Kaitlin Lilienthal. This service is best suited for clients that benefit from weekly or bi-weekly therapy services in the outpatient environment. Clients coping with complex mental health needs that require more frequent monitoring and/or engagement will be offered referral information. Patients with needs outside of Dr. Lilienthal’s areas of expertise will also be offered referral information.

What to Expect

Knowing what to expect when starting therapy can help reduce uncertainty. Your first appointment will involve sharing information about your background and current concerns. Our team will focus on the issues that are most important to you, as well as ask about a few key areas reviewed with every patient. Your privacy is taken very seriously, and you can expect a confidential and respectful environment. There are only a few situations that cannot be guaranteed to be kept confidential, these limits will be discussed with you during your first visit.

Areas of Practice

Individual Therapy

Individual therapy provides an avenue for personal growth, healing, and self-discovery. It offers personalized care, emotional support, and a strong therapeutic connection. Additionally, being in therapy can help improve communication skills, provide fresh insights about your life, and equip you with coping strategies to manage distress.

Couples or Family Therapy

Couple and family therapies improve communication skills among those in visits, treats mental health concerns that impact the entire unit, and helps develop coping strategies. Additionally, it identifies healthy support within the unit, fostering understanding and collaboration.

Areas of Support

ADHD

Therapy can provide personalized advice and coping strategies for daily life challenges. Additionally, therapy helps individuals better understand, accept, and manage the effects of ADHD, enhancing your overall well-being.

Anxiety

Methods of treatment can include:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy focuses on accepting emotional experiences rather than avoiding them. It teaches acceptance, allowing individuals to coexist with negative thoughts and feelings without being controlled by them.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a highly effective approach for treating anxiety. It focuses on identifying and challenging negative thought patterns and behaviors that contribute to anxiety. In CBT, individuals work with a therapist to recognize distorted thinking, learn coping strategies, and gradually face anxiety-provoking situations

Dialectical Behavior Therapy combines cognitive-behavioral techniques with mindfulness and acceptance strategies. DBT helps regulate emotions, reduce impulsive behaviors, and improve interpersonal skills.

Exposure-based Therapies involves gradually facing feared situations or objects, either in real life or through imagination. By doing so, individuals learn that their anxiety decreases over time

Depression

Methods of treatment can include:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy teaches self-acceptance and encourages embracing thoughts and feelings. It focuses on accepting past experiences rather than suppressing them, promoting emotional flexibility. By aligning actions with personal values, ACT helps individuals manage depression and improve overall well-being

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on changing unhealthy thought patterns that contribute to suffering. By challenging negative thoughts, reframing interpretations of life events, and developing coping strategies, helping individuals manage depression.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy blends acceptance with change, emphasizing mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and relationship improvement. It provides practical skills and structured support to alleviate depressive symptoms

Grief or Loss

Seeking therapy after a loss can help you process your experience at your own pace. Various therapeutic methods, such as acceptance and commitment therapy, complicated grief therapy, and interpersonal therapy, can help manage emotional pain and intense sadness associated with loss. A therapist can also address feelings of guilt or regret related to the deceased.

Insomnia

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia is a structured and evidence-based approach to combat the frustrating symptoms of insomnia. It focuses on restructuring thoughts, feelings, and behaviors contributing to sleep difficulties. Techniques include stimulus control, sleep restriction, and relaxation training. Most individuals experience improvements in their insomnia and better quality sleep, making it effective for both short-term and chronic insomnia.

OCD

Exposure Therapy is used to treat Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In Exposure Therapy, individuals intentionally face their feared thoughts, items, or situations that trigger their OCD obsessions. The key is to expose themselves to these distressing situations while preventing the usual compulsive behaviors, ultimately reducing anxiety and breaking the automatic association between anxiety and rituals.

Phobias

Exposure therapy is a technique used in the treatment of anxiety disorders, including phobias. It involves gradually exposing individuals to anxiety-provoking situations or stimuli in a safe environment, helping them overcome specific fears and reduce avoidance behaviors.

PTSD

Cognitive Processing Therapy is therapy effective for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It helps individuals recognize how trauma has changed their view of themselves, others, and the world. By challenging and changing unhelpful thoughts related to the traumatic event, Cognitive Processing Therapy aims to facilitate recovery from PTSD.

Relationship Distress

Individuals, couples, family, or partner therapy is a form of counseling that helps partners improve their relationship. It can take various approaches, from structured skills-based methods to exploratory talk therapy, and aims to enhance communication, resolve conflicts, and strengthen emotional bonds.