Dr. Melissa Klay is both a licensed clinical psychologist and a board-certified art therapist, a combination that is uncommon. For more than 25 years she has treated children, adolescents, and adults who are dealing with complex trauma, eating disorders, and intense difficulty regulating emotion. Her approach brings together depth psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), with art-making used as a way to reach experiences that are hard to put into words.
Alongside her private practice, Dr. Klay is a tenured Associate Professor in the Graduate Creative Arts Therapy Department at the Pratt Institute, where she has taught and mentored clinicians for more than twenty years. She received a Pratt Faculty Development Fund grant to study the combination of art therapy and DBT for adolescent girls with PTSD, and she presents her work regularly at professional conferences in the New York area. She has also published sports psychology research in the Journal of Applied Sport Management.
Dr. Klay earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and her Master of Science at Pratt Institute. Her early training took place at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center and the Metropolitan Center for Mental Health. In therapy she is warm and validating, and she helps clients work through unhelpful patterns, process trauma, and regain a sense of control.
Outside of work, she makes her own art, reads, exercises, and follows her favorite soccer teams.