About Eliza Stucker-Rozovsky, Psy.D.

Clinical Experience

Eliza Stucker-Rozovsky, Psy.D. has worked in a variety of settings across her training years, from outpatient clinics to inpatient psych units, integrated primary care, university counseling centers, juvenile detention facilities, and private practice. She has worked with children, adolescents, adults, and couples as well as co-led group therapy and performed psychological testing across the lifespan. Her doctoral level research and clinical experience were focused on working with individuals with developmental trauma and personality disorders. Prior to her doctoral training, she was trained as a hospital chaplain and worked in a variety of medical units, including the ER, gerontology, oncology, and medical ICU. As such, she is familiar with working with individuals from a wide variety of religious, spiritual, racial, and ethnic backgrounds who have co-morbid medical conditions. She highly values interprofessional work and routinely coordinates care with other medical providers. Given her history as a chaplain, Dr. Stucker-Rozovsky is trained to work with individuals who bring spiritual/religious/existential concerns to therapy, including religious trauma, processing life changes in light of faith, and grief.

Therapeutic Style

Authentic

My patients often tell me they like working with me because I am easy to talk to, transparent in my approach, non-judgmental, and straightforward. This means a lot to me, as I wouldn’t trust someone I couldn’t “read” or someone who changes depending on who they are around. I am a human, just like you. I strongly believe in the power of an authentic human relationship and strive to create a stable, positive, reliable relationship with every patient I work with. To foster this environment, I am very transparent in my work, meaning I will often share what I am thinking, what prompts my question, or why I am challenging you in a particular moment. I am very intentional in my work - everything I say is meant to guide you forward. Informed consent is a dynamic process and I am committed to explaining my process so that you and I are working together, always.

Active

I am very committed to my work and I tend to have a more directive style in therapy. What this means is that it’s unlikely I will smile and nod at you for the whole session. I am asking questions, reflecting back what I hear, explaining what I’m hearing in light of the case formulation we have already created, and often offering you alternative things to consider or ways to approach the situation at hand differently. It’s also very common for me to give you homework between sessions. I tend to work best with people who want to have this active process in therapy, those who are ready for change and want something to be different about their lives. I talk openly about someone’s ambivalence to change and actively work to help them remove obstacles preventing positive change.

Relational

Psychodynamic and interpersonal theories of psychology have strongly influenced my therapeutic style and understanding of human beings. Just as some of our deepest, most intractable wounds occur in relationships, the opportunity for transformation and lasting healing comes through corrective emotional experiences that can be modeled in a healthy therapeutic relationship. Therefore, not only am I working with you on the relationship you have with yourself and with those in your life, but I also use the relationship we form to promote your healing. I prioritize being responsive, warm, and understanding, not only because these are my personal values but also because these qualities foster healthy relatedness that can afford you additional strength to dig deep within yourself, be honest with yourself and with me about what is really hurting, and take risks in trying out new things and learning new skills. Because our relationship is such a high priority, I actively work to process and improve our dynamic, and you will often find me asking you what your experience of our work has been and may even be asked to rate our relationship using alliance measures.

Therapy Mottos

I don’t ask my patients to go to places in themselves that I am unwilling to go.

This motto keeps me honest. I strive to be the psychologist I would want to see. As such, I have a strong commitment to continue learning as new research emerges and incorporate new evidence-based interventions. In addition, I am constantly investing in my own personal development and practicing self-care so that I am emotionally available for my patients. I believe in the healing power of therapy, not just because I am a practitioner but also because it has enriched my own life. I am sensitive to the risks we all feel when we reach out to a new person for help. It is important to me that my patients see that I am not simply a context expert on the topic of psychology, but rather a human being who has specialized training but has also done and is doing the work I am asking of you.

Therapy is a recognition of our humanity and the realities of the human condition.

I believe that therapy is not only for treating mental illness but also for cultivating wisdom and well-being in life. Part of well-being and wisdom is found through learning how to face our life as is, the pretty and the not so pretty. Facing, feeling, talking about, and working through some of our highest highs and lowest lows offers us the opportunity to find ways to integrate all the experiences of our lives into a coherent narrative, where we “claim” every chapter of our life, aware that some chapters should never have happened but did. It is up to us to make something meaningful of everything that has happened and will happen in our life, to be present and active in our life as it is unfolding. Life can be messy and painful, and in the midst of it can still be very beautiful and meaningful.

The human will to survive and be resilient is more powerful than any psychological intervention.

We all struggle, we all suffer, we all falter, we all fail. Many of us have survived unspeakable traumas. However, I have seen time and again how powerful our hope, our motivation to heal, and our will to meaning can be in the healing journey. More important than what has happened in our life, then, is how we make sense of what has happened and how we integrate our life experiences into who we are and how we treat ourselves and others. In other words, we are not defined by our trauma, what was once done to us without our permission or approval. We are not defined by the worst of what has happened to us, by some diagnosis, by what we struggle with most. Rather, we are defined by how we recover and what we learn from the stumbles, the failures, the lows, the suffering. Our response to life, then, often defines who we are, and it is up to each of us to decide how we respond to everything that life brings. Regardless of our histories or our circumstances, we all have the potential to have meaningful lives where we have a clear sense of purpose, find joy, give back to the world, and continue to grow as people over the course of our lifetime.