Nicole A. Schaffer, Ph.D.
Dr. Schaffer received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, her M.A., Ed.M. from Teachers College, Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Clinical Health Psychology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. She completed both a pre-doctoral internship and a neuropsychiatric research post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry. This was followed by a clinical post-doctoral fellowship at the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy. Dr. Schaffer has extensive experience in the treatment of depression, anxiety disorders, relationships and interpersonal difficulties, stress management and the promotion of health behaviors, chemical dependency, and chronic health-related issues. She has published a number of papers and co-authored several books on weight-control and obesity, receiving the American Medical Writers Book Award in 1998. Throughout her career, Dr. Schaffer taught graduate students at Teachers College, Columbia University from 1994-2000 and has provided clinical supervision and training to first year medical students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Currently, she continues to supervise post-doctoral students.
With over 30 years of clinical experience, Dr. Schaffer has expertise in many treatment approaches in conjunction to her behavioral medicine and health psychology training. In addition to cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), she incorporates dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), mindfulness-based therapies and positive psychology. Having been originally trained in Transcendental Meditation ™ in 1989, Dr. Schaffer has gone on to explore and practice other forms of meditation such as mindfulness meditation and Coherent Breathing.