About DRSPEI.COM

Professional Experience

- Private Practice

- Psychiatric Hospital

- Adjunct Professor

I have contributed to the mental health field since 1999. My clinical experience includes working as an inpatient psychologist at a psychiatric hospital, first, on a female admission unit, then on a male unit, and finally, on a female trauma unit. During those times, I realized that sometimes the very same thing i.e. hospital admissions and best evidenced interventions designed to alleviate emotional distress may become a source of pain if taken out of context. Next, I undertook the challenge of managing and supervising a mobile psychiatric team that aimed at providing psychiatric services at homes, managing crises in the community, and preventing hospital admissions. Despite my administrative duties I continued providing clinical services to service recipients, visiting them in the community, and facilitating their recovery. For more than a decade I worked at an outpatient clinic providing group and individual psychotherapy to individuals in the community. 

During my hospital career, I have contributed to the training of psychology interns, psychiatric residents, and medical students by providing seminars and ongoing supervision.

In my long years of private practice, I have worked together with my clients as partners by fostering insight in what is troublesome for them and how to improve the quality of their life. My clients are primarily adults who seek a short consultation to talk something through or psychotherapy that aims at the resolution of more complex problems. I have significant experience in helping people go through crises, deal with past painful life events, gain control of and overcome distressing symptoms, as well as problem solve and plan for their future.

Education
I received a Master degree from NYU and Ferkauf Graduate School of Albert Einstein School of Medicine, and a doctoral diploma from  Ferkauf Graduate School of Albert Einstein School of Medicine. 

Publications/Presentations:

Muenzenmaier, K., Conan, M., Kobayashi, T., Margolis, F., Spei, E. (2011). “Is Treatment for Psychosis Possible in a Public Mental Health System?". Presented in ISPS-US 11th Annual Meeting, November 5-7 2011, Psychosis, Trauma, and Human Connections: Building Community. Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Muenzemaier, K., Spei, E., and Gross, D. (2010). “Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Men with Serious Mental Illness: A Reconceptualization", American Journal of Psychotherapy, vol64, no3, p257-268

Schacher, S., Spei, E., and Salton, W.L. (2006). “The Wounded Healer: 15 Miles from Ground Zero.  Presented in 2006 APA Convention, New Orleans, August 2006.

Muenzenmaier, K., Spei, E., Muller, K., and Rivera, M., (2005). “PTSD and Serious Mental Illness: A Group  Therapy Model”, Presented in ISTSS 21st Annual Meeting, November 2-5 2005: Dissemination: Transforming LIves Through Transforming Care.

Levin, R. and Spei, E, (2004). “Relationship of Purported Measures of Pathological and Non-Pathological Dissociation to Self-Reported Psychological Distress and Fantasy Immersion", Assessment, 11(2), p.160-168

Spei, E. (2004). “Reflections on “the Impact of Trauma: from Individuals to Communities”, a Conference Organized by the Institute of Inter-Balkan Relations in collaboration with the Bronx Psychiatric Center Trauma Committee, International Tribune.