Flexibility and Customized Sessions
Typical sessions are 1-1.5 hours in length, with the first session for an individual being 1.5 hours and the first family or couple session 2 hours in length, as necessary to obtain relevant history. However, given the proximity of some clients as well as need, longer sessions can often be arranged. Likewise, some clients have weekly sessions for awhile, while others are scheduled for bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly sessions. Seemingly paradoxically, Debra’s goal is to work herself out of a job.

All sessions are by pre-scheduled appointment only.

Clientele
Those who typically seek Debra’s services include individuals, couples, families and/or groups from the following populations:
• Parents
• Military personnel
• Physicians
• Law enforcement personnel
• Those requiring the utmost in confidentiality
• Clergy
• Adolescents
• Gays and Lesbians
• Couples preparing for marriage/commitment
• The terminally ill and their families
• Therapists
• Trauma survivors
• Families with a terminally ill member
• The elderly
• Abuse victims/survivors
• The Bereaved

Debra A. Douthit, MA, LMFT, is a New York State Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Marriage and Family Therapy from Syracuse University. She is both a Clinical Member as well as a former Approved Supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, as well as having served within the local and state chapters of AAMFT. She has lectured at Syracuse University’s Marriage and Family Therapy Program and the School of Social Work. She holds faculty positions at the Institute for Pastoral Growth and the Pastoral Care Education program, and is a published researcher. In her career, she has taught courses, lectured on or presented workshops on topics such as: prosocial child rearing, diversity, psychodrama, developing a private practice, challenging fundamentalism, use of therapist as tool, emotional regulation, managing and healing church traumas/linkages and mergers, teaching parenting skills to teen mothers, use of genograms in therapy, interpersonal dynamics, theories of MFT, working with adolescents, unlearning racism, working with the dying, and social psychology in the therapy room.

Debra has worked in the public and private sector, and continues to do so. She has conducted therapy in clients’ homes, jails, agency offices, trauma sites, hospitals, schools, her private office, and on the telephone. As she’s fond of saying to her supervisees, “Therapists should not underestimate the fundamental role of context in understanding behavior and motivation”.