Dr. Felicia Connor’s techniques integrate mindfulness-based interventions, cognitive-behavioral therapy and solution-focused therapy into her individual and group work. Her clinical interests include therapy with a spirituality focus, culturally informed therapy and assessment and concussion across the lifespan. In her daily practice, she provides individual and group cognitive rehabilitation, psychotherapy and neuropsychological assessment to those with neurological conditions. She has been trained in traditional therapy for depression, anxiety, adjustment to disability, grief/loss; pediatric neurological issues (e.g. concussion management) and couples and family therapy. Her research interests include: multiple sclerosis, cultural considerations for treatment, and cognitive remediation. She is Board Certified in Rehabilitation Psychology and licensed in New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Her doctorate in clinical psychology is from Argosy University.
Dr. Caitlyn Arutiunov’s research focuses on identifying barriers to the neurorehabilitation process within an outpatient neurorehabilitation population, including factors such as psychosocial, environmental, institutional, and attitudinal barriers to treatment. The goal of this research is to document these barriers to treatment to aid in improving overall quality of care for neurorehabilitation patients. In addition to conducting research, she provides psychotherapy, cognitive remediation, and group therapy on an outpatient basis to neurorehabilitation patients at Rusk. She completed her doctoral internship at Rusk. She received her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University, where she completed her dissertation on "The Ethics of Publicly Diagnosing Public Figures with Mental Disorders."
In the interview, they discuss kinds of treatment for patients with a coronavirus infection; how such treatment might differ from typical treatment protocols; what a workday is like treating patients by telehealth; if interaction with patients differs compared to treating them directly in a clinical setting, and if so, in what ways; how telehealth group work and cognitive remediation present more challenges and require some creative solutions on the part of clinicians; whether the type of mental health condition aids in the determination of whether treatment on a one-to-one or group therapy basis is more appropriate; whether psychological services are being provided for other health personnel treating coronavirus patients in the clinical setting and for what kinds of mental health challenges; psychological studies it may be worth launching in order to enhance the mental health care of patients who will be treated in the future; and based on personal experiences working with coronavirus patients, what could be worth incorporating in psychology education programs?