Karen Long-Traynor, PhD is a clinical psychologist. I offer evidence-based therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), to address the mental health concerns such as disease related distress or pain, which are unique to children, adolescents, young adults, and families coping with cancer or a blood disorder. Prior to working in a hematology and oncology setting, I worked in an outpatient practice with individuals with a wide range of emotional, behavioral, and adjustment problems including anxiety, depression, relationship problems, and trauma. Through a collaborative process that combines exploration and education, I help individuals make an overwhelming situation manageable and identify the path towards long-term mental health and improved quality of life.
In addition to therapeutic services, I offer neuropsychological testing which assesses areas such as academic functioning, memory, intelligence, executive functioning, and mood. These evaluations can be used to gain necessary services or accommodations from your child’s school to help them function better academically. This may be especially helpful if your child's ability to think, reason or learn has been impacted by cancer treatment or chronic illness.
With regard to research, my interests are in medical trauma, late effects of treatment, and quality of life during and after treatment. I have recently worked on projects involving pain management and on improving quality of life with advanced care planning for young adults with life threatening illnesses.
I completed my undergraduate education at the University of Oregon in 1997 followed by an M.A. from the honors program at Pepperdine University in clinical psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy in 2000. I went on to earn a Ph.D. from Long Island University in clinical psychology in 2012. My clinical internship was at Bronx Psychiatric Center in 2005 and my post-graduate training was at the New York Center for Neuropsychology. Following this, I had the pleasure of working at Hudson Valley Center for Development and the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the division of pediatric hematology/oncology.
