Dr. Thoma is a licensed clinical psychologist and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. He offers psychotherapy for the treatment of anxiety, depression, OCD, panic attacks, social anxiety, difficulties with public speaking, phobias, PTSD, relationship problems, interpersonal conflicts, and work difficulties. With a PhD from Fordham University, Dr. Thoma did his pre-doctoral internship at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Cornell Cognitive Therapy Clinic.
For the last decade, Dr Thoma has led a Midtown Manhattan psychotherapy practice offering empirically supported psychotherapy. Dr. Thoma specializes in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Schema Therapy, and Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). In addition to seeing patients, he has been on the faculty at Weill Cornell since 2011, conducting research and training psychiatrists and psychologists. A Diplomate of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, he is also the recent Past President of the New York City Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association.
Dr. Thoma combines CBT techniques and a warm, empathic approach to teach patients concrete skills that help them reduce distress, cope with difficulties, solve life problems, and work toward important personal goals. Dr. Thoma has also been trained in the use of mindfulness meditation techniques, which he employs regularly in his work with patients.
In addition to his expertise in CBT, Dr. Thoma also specializes in additional evidence-based experiential therapies, including Schema Therapy and Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). Experiential therapies are those that focus on working with emotion at a deeper level, aiming for more structural change that stands to be long-lasting. Schema Therapy is an integrative off-shoot of CBT that is designed to address chronic mood difficulties and repetitive interpersonal patterns known as “schemas.” ISTDP is an integrative, experiential therapy designed to accelerate the therapeutic process. It takes the form of a very active and collaborative treatment to access emotional breakthroughs. Both therapies have been shown to be highly effective in a number of clinical trials in helping patients make changes to longstanding relationship patterns, their sense of well-being, and their capacity to pursue a gratifying and meaningful life.
Along with his clinical practice, Dr. Thoma supervises psychiatry residents and predoctoral psychology interns in conducting CBT and teaches didactics in psychotherapy research at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Thoma has been involved in research focusing on improving the effectiveness of psychotherapy through optimizing combinations of therapist warmth, acceptance, facilitation of emotional expression, and teaching of specific skills that allow patients to develop new ways of seeing themselves and the world. He has authored a variety of scientific articles and given numerous presentations and lectures related to psychotherapy research. His first-author publication in The American Journal of Psychiatry was named as one of the 10 most important articles of 2012. Additionally, his first-author paper in Psychodynamic Psychiatry received an award by the editors of that journal as the best article of 2015. Dr. Thoma has worked to help disseminate evidence-based methods of psychotherapy to his fellow professionals, having published a book with Guilford Press on the various methods of engaging emotion in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (see the "publications" page on this site for more information).
To schedule an appointment, call 347-778-1801 or email nathanthomaphd@gmail.com.