Alexis Cate is a skilled Clinical Social Worker & Certified Clinical Trauma Professional with 12+ years of experience working in hospital and community-based agencies across New York City. She is currently in the process of founding Empowered Psychotherapy & Consulting, a private practice dedicated to person-centered care and behavioral health education. Alexis currently provides direct clinical care to adolescents and their families in a Bronx, NY, school-based health center.
Alexis’ therapeutic strategies maintain a trauma-focused and informed lens. She believes in the importance of mind-body interventions, as well as the practice of mindfulness. Her most recent training includes, but is not limited to, Post Master’s Certificate in Trauma Informed Practice with New York University, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) with the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Memorial Health.
Alexis is an experienced educator in mental health and psychological well-being. She hopes to provide comprehensive courses to fellow clinicians and college-level students. Alexis bridges theory and practice throughout her coursework, hoping that all those who take her courses leave feeling increased competency and capability. She is a compassionate and highly motivated self-starter with a strong desire to empower the individuals, families, and learners she works with.
Alexis’ behavioral health courses address a wide range of topics that reflect her expertise:
- Finding Hope: Risk Assessment & Suicide Prevention talks clinicians through addressing suicidality, safety planning strategies, and identifying and/or monitoring high-risk clients.
- Adulting 101: Finding Structure in the Chaos looks at the complicated aspects of emerging adulthood and the macro barriers underserved communities face. Alexis looks into Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and applies clinical strategies so that clients feel empowered to meet their basic needs in modern society.
- You Are Enough: Dismantling Shame & Building Emotional Resilience in Clinical Practice is inspired by the work of Dr. Brene Brown. Alexis takes a deep dive into the world of shame, vulnerability and how we as clinicians can support clients in coming out the other side.
- Where Mind Meets Body: Trauma Informed Care & Treatment explores the impacts of traumatic experiences on the brain and body. Alexis provides a comprehensive overview of the neurobiological impacts of trauma, assessment tools, and bottom-up interventions before applying top-down processing.
- The Stories We Tell Ourselves: A Closer Look at the Narrative Perspective provides an overview of Narrative Therapy. Alexis explores this therapeutic model’s origins, basic tenets, and how to apply various interventions both from a narrative perspective or electrically.
- Beyond Prevention: A Look at Adolescent Substance Use & Mental Health discusses the effects of substances on the adolescent brain. Alexis explores how adolescents often turn to substances to self-medicate mental health symptoms, especially those symptoms associated with trauma.
- All Mixed Up: Motivational Interview and Resolving Ambivalence looks at the role of ambivalence in clients’ presentations. Alexis discusses how a Motivational Interviewing conversational style can support clients in talking themselves into changing unhelpful behaviors.
Coming soon, Alexis will begin teaching her course on Comorbid Complexities: Borderline Personality Disorder and Trauma, where she will explore the intersection of Borderline Personality structure in the context of early childhood trauma.
Professional Affiliations:
Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists
Education:
Post Master’s Certificate in Trauma Informed Practice, New York University
Master of Social Work-MSW, Specialized in Health and Mental Health, Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College-CUNY
Bachelor of Psychology-BA, Wagner College
