Dafna Finkler, LCSW, Clinical Director, Clinical Supervisor

Dafna’s (she/her)  approach is somatic, collaborative, relational and depth oriented. Together with her clients, she works to identify patterns that have offered resourcing in times of distress, and to challenge and shift that which no longer serves her clients life and desires moving forward.  

She emphasizes embodied meaning making, self-generated imagery and wisdom, and uncovering and amplifying her clients essence. Dafna encourages careful listening to ancestral echoes of joy, strength, resilience, grief and pain, and examination of archetypes and symbols that show up to guide her clients, in their dreams, altered states and their everyday lives. She is here to walk alongside her clients with curiosity, heart centered presence, and intention.   Dafna has experience supporting those who have experienced trauma and loss and are struggling with  PTSD,  Anxiety and Depression.  She sees these clusters of symptoms as a doorway to a greater understanding of her client’s wholeness 

Dafna has completed the three year Somatic Experiencing Training and is certified in  Dr. Abi Blaskeslee’s Implicit Psychotherapy training.  She studied applied Attachment Theory and Trauma-Informed Child-Parent Psychotherapy and co-led attachment based parent-child groups (GABI) with her mentor Anne Murphy at Montefiore. She went on to study Child-Parent Psychotherapy in-house with Dr. Alicia Lieberman and the late Dr. Patricia Van-Horn at the UCSF Child Trauma Research Program. There, she also trained in Infant Mental Health and pre-perinatal mental health through the Fussy Baby Program. Dafna holds a BFA in Photography (SVA), BS in Psychology (Stony Brook),  MSW (Hunter College) and MS.Ed in Infancy from Bank Street.  

As one of MPG’s Clinical Supervisors, Dafna collaborates with Leadership on the day to day clinical operations of MPG. She also supervises and consults with MPG clinicians, is the director of the practice’s Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy program, and directs MPG’s community partnership with Samadhi Outreach Center - an organization centered on supporting recovery through the lens of Harm Reduction.

Dafna is fluent in Hebrew and Spanish