Dr. Jennifer Pereira earned a master’s degree in School Psychology from Long Island University and went on to receive her doctoral degree from the Derner Institute for Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the adult clinic at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies and at the Derner Hempstead Child Clinic, a community mental health clinic serving under resourced predominantly BIPOC children and families. Jennifer also has over 15 years of experience in working with children and families as a school psychologist with the NYC Department of Education.
Although her clinical work is primarily relationally and psychodynamically informed, she recognizes the importance of the mind-body connection and the benefit of other modalities, particularly somatic practices and interventions. Jennifer takes an integrative and holistic approach, in which she considers each person’s unique history and subjectivity. She sees psychotherapy as a container for genuine connection, vulnerability, and trust that serves as a vehicle for profound healing. As a therapist, she seeks to embark on a collaborative journey to help people understand themselves more fully and create meaning from their experience. Jennifer recognizes every human being’s need to feel truly seen in all of our humanity. She is especially interested in the effects of intergenerational, collective, developmental, relational, and racial trauma. Jennifer firmly believes that compassion is a powerful force in confronting the shame that trauma creates and that through self-compassion, these shamed, disavowed parts of ourselves can become integrated, promoting increased self-acceptance and growth. She strives to facilitate others to tap into the unique strengths they each bring, with the vision of embodying a felt sense of safety, peace, and vitality, and of giving voice to their most authentic desires.
Jennifer is fluent in Spanish.