About
Dr. Jessica Block

Who am I? I am passionate about my profession as a Clinical Psychologist, but most of all I am a human with a big heart. I have wanted to be a psychologist since I was twelve years old when I got the results from a personality test in my home and careers class. However, our heart’s path is usually not a straight line. It was after spending a year living and teaching English in Ecuador through WorldTeach and Harvard’s Center for International Development that I found the courage to apply for my doctorate. Gratefully, this also sparked a love for travel and for cultures different from my own.

During my PhD program in Clinical Psychology my research focused on the family system, cultural beliefs, co-parenting, and gender roles. I have clinical experience in a range of settings, including community mental health, the public school system, educational/neuropsychological assessment, college counseling, Head Start, hospital child abuse treatment, and residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment.

For the past six years my professional experience has been in community mental health and substance abuse treatment working with individuals, groups, and families. Most recently I spent two years serving as Project Director of a mental health program licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health. Among many other responsibilities, in this role I provided clinical supervision and training to masters and doctoral level staff, as well as Clinical Psychology PhD students.

Education & Training

  • B.A. Psychology, University of Maryland

    M.S. Experimental Psychology, Old Dominion University

    Ph.D. Clinical Psychology, Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship - Long Island Reach, Inc.

    Predoctoral Internship - Miami-Dade County Community Action & Human Services Department

  • Integral Somatic Psychology with Dr. Raja Selvam

    Internal Family Systems Trauma Treatment Program with Dr. Frank Anderson

    Healing Trauma and Working with Somatic Wounds with Dr. Peter Levine

    Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

My Approach

After working with clients for over a decade, traveling the world, and learning from esteemed traditionally trained therapists, as well as spiritual teachers and meditators, I have come to understand therapy as an interpersonal science and art. The newest science in affective neuroscience and cognitive psychology shows that the more the body is involved in emotional experience, the easier it is for the brain to process a situation emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally. But also, there is a creative aspect to connection between human beings that cannot be easily quantified.

I am grateful that my personal and professional evolution has led me to trauma-informed modalities, such as somatic psychology, parts work (Internal Family Systems), and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which help people move through stuck traumas that have haunted them for decades. I have done intensive training in Integral Somatic Psychology, described as the crown jewel of body-based approaches. I have seen the profound ability of this approach to help people build a greater capacity for both pleasant and unpleasant emotion and make lasting change. My psychodynamic training informs my conceptualization and relational framework and my training in cognitive-behavioral therapy provides structure and coping tools when needed.

The truth is that all humans have suffered in some way and we all want to live from our fullness. Being human will always be hard, especially these days, but we can all benefit from increasing our capacity to be with our emotions. There is beauty in learning to appreciate all the parts of us, the full range of our human emotion, and what these aspects have to teach us.