Elizabeth Kotkin
Experienced therapist blending CBT and compassion
LMFT New York
- Experience
- 35 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Addictions, Trauma and abuse, Grief
- Approaches
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Client-Centered Therapy
- Languages
- English
About Elizabeth
Elizabeth Kotkin is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 35 years of clinical experience who blends practical, evidence-informed methods with a warm, client-focused stance.
Background and approach
She integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with client-centered listening and trauma-focused strategies to help people cope with depression, anxiety, grief, addiction, and major life changes. Her practice in New York draws on long experience supporting those who struggle with social anxiety, isolation, shame, and relationship or intimacy-related concerns.
Elizabeth places emphasis on tailoring treatment to each person’s needs, helping clients build coping skills, strengthen self-esteem, and develop clearer perspectives on family and relational patterns. She has particular experience addressing codependency, substance concerns, post-traumatic stress, and the complexities of midlife transitions and bereavement.
Her work combines practical tools and motivational techniques to encourage sustained progress and better daily functioning. Clients can expect a collaborative process in which goals are clarified, coping strategies are practiced, and progress is reviewed over time.
Elizabeth’s California and New York background and decades of practice inform a compassionate, seasoned approach that aims to help people move through difficult experiences toward more manageable, meaningful lives.
Integrating practical approaches for online healing
Elizabeth uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help clients identify unhelpful thoughts and test new patterns of thinking and behavior; this approach often helps with depression, anxiety, sleep issues, and stress by creating concrete strategies to change daily habits. She also draws on Trauma-Focused Therapy to process and reduce the ongoing impact of past traumatic experiences, offering structured interventions aimed at decreasing symptoms and improving functioning after abuse, assault, or other traumatic events.
Finding the right approach is treated as a collaborative process. The therapist works with each person to clarify goals, assess what feels most useful, and adapt methods over time so that interventions reflect individual needs, preferences, and progress rather than a one-size-fits-all plan.
Online sessions are offered via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to increase flexibility for scheduling and access. These formats allow clients to engage in skill practice, guided processing, and motivational conversations from varied settings, making it easier to maintain momentum between appointments and fit therapeutic work into everyday life.
Frequently asked questions
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Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
35+ years
Licensed
New York, California
Languages
English