Clinicians
Bukky Kolawole
My Specialty
Dr. Olubukunola (oh-loo-boo-koon-aw-lah) Kolawole (caw-lah-wah-le), better known as Dr. Bukky (Boo-key), is a bicultural, licensed clinical psychologist with a strong value for collaboration and effectiveness. Over the past years, she has provided psychotherapy to help individuals and couples in New York City make desired changes in their life. She has helped her clients improve their mood and self-esteem, manage feelings of panic and anxiety, communicate effectively and feel close and secure in their relationships.
Dr. Bukky specializes in providing couple’s therapy, pre-marital counseling and discernment counseling for couples, including those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community. She helps couples communicate and relate to each other in more emotionally responsive ways, guiding and supporting partners to use skills that are critical for improving and strengthening relationships so they last and are filled with comfort, security, and joy. She also works with partners who are exploring open relationships and polyamory.
Dr. Bukky has an active, engaging, warm and empathic style guided by approaches including Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Interviewing, each of which research studies have shown as effective for relieving relationship distress and symptoms of emotional disorders and for making lasting behavior change.
(Side note: You might be tickled to know that when the young Bukky encountered difficult situations or intense emotions, one of the strategies she used to cope was engaging in self-talk with her future self, whom she then named “Dr. B.” She still has her journal entries from childhood that reveal this.)
Dr. Bukky is passionate about helping her clients feel accepted, important and loved in their relationships. She is committed to helping you feel equipped with the skills you need in order to reach the people you care about and enjoy a more productive and fulfilling life.
My Specialty
Kimberly joined our team to expand our services for parents from diverse backgrounds including parents that identify as LGBTQI. Clinically, Kimberly specializes in working with parents seeking to address children’s behavior problems, as well as couples whose intimacy and closeness are being affected by disagreements about children or parenting roles/styles. She also works with separated and divorced parents navigating co-parenting relationships and LGBTQ families with elective co-parenting arrangements. Kimberly is highly skilled at helping parents create a harmonious home and cohesive family unit, regardless of their relationship status.
Kimberly Vasallo earned her Masters in Mental Health Counseling and her Bachelors of Science in Psychology from Yeshiva University, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. Kimberly has completed specialized training in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Collaborative Problem Solving, Motivational Interviewing, and Substance Abuse Counseling.
Kimberly Vasallo’s journey to become a therapist wasn’t a traditional one. After years of training as a performer, Kimberly continued to have difficulty finding a way to express her value for service toward others within the theater profession. She had spent her entire life identifying as a singer and actress and had landed herself in theater conservatory, the Holy Grail for singers and actors in her community. But, the fear of redefining herself and letting go of all she knew as safe and familiar could not match the pain of feeling disconnected from her value for caring directly for the well-being of others. So, after 16 years, Kimberly made the hard decision to walk away from it all.
Kimberly coached Special Olympics teams and taught social skills to children on the autism spectrum using acting and performance, and she wanted to find a career that built upon these experiences and would allow her to foster wellbeing and happiness in others. In 2009, Kimberly found the courage to pursue her love for teaching and working with children and secured a position teaching 25 Kindergarteners. What Kimberly did not expect was that her interaction with her students’ parents would be the most fulfilling part of her role. She was energized by listening to parents’ challenges, whether their struggle was about their difficulty implementing a morning routine, conflict with a partner who had different parenting values, or just general parent/human burn-out. Kimberly supported these parents by modeling effective strategies and encouraging them to attend to themselves and their intimate relationship so they could create the best environment for themselves and their children.
Kimberly’s journey has been filled with wonder and “wonderful accidents,” which have left her feeling deeply rewarded by her work as a therapist. By integrating her background in performing arts with experiential and evidence-based therapeutic approaches, Kimberly is able to be creative and disarming in the therapy room as well as during home visits. These strengths, along with the whole-hearted way she engages and listens, are what draw clients to her and maintain their interest in their work together.
Kimberly Vasallo
Elisa Cameron
My Specialty
Because of Elisa’s unique background and focus on cultural competence, she specializes in working with individuals and couples from inter-racial and bicultural families, families formed through adoption, those within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community, and individuals hoping to increase clarity and/or comfort around their various identities. Whether she’s helping clients proactively create a strong foundation through pre-marital counseling, or helping them navigate and resolve current tensions in their relationships through couples therapy, her focus on increasing her clients’ understanding of themselves, and their ability to relate to others helps her clients achieve more meaningful, fulfilling, and sustainable relationships.
While Elisa found her work to be rewarding, she felt it was incomplete. Although she was making a difference at individual, team, and organizational levels, she craved more. What exactly she craved, however, wasn’t immediately clear. While on a consulting project in New York, a family friend reached out asking for guidance for how to address her granddaughter’s struggle with being adopted. The request stopped Elisa in her tracks. As a transracial adoptee, Elisa knew this territory well; yet this was the first time her status as an adoptee proved to be an asset. This moment changed everything.
My Specialty
Danny specializes in working with individuals and families impacted by trauma, anxiety and acculturations issues. He also works with couples to help them communicate better and feel more emotionally connected. Danny is also experienced in helping families better understand the behavior of their young children (0 to 6 years old).
Danny earned a Masters in Social Work from New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, where his focus was early childhood development and family practice and earned a Bachelors in Fine Arts from East Carolina University. Danny has received specialized training in Emotionally Focused Family Therapy and has provided care in many settings including, Roberto Clemente’s Family Guidance Center, LaGuardia Community College’s Wellness and Counseling Center and New York City Public Schools.
Danny’s journey to become a therapist started in 2008 working for a Drama Therapy organization that matched professional actors with Licensed Drama Therapists to provide care to adolescents with behavioral problems. He loved getting to know the teens and families he worked with and particularly enjoyed facilitating the parent workshops provided to the families. Wanting to have a deeper impact in the lives of the families he worked with, Danny returned to school to become a therapist. Feeling he had a good grasp on therapeutic interventions for teens Danny focused on early childhood and family practice. What he learned regarding childhood adversity and the lifetime health implications it has on individuals that have experienced early childhood adversity had a profound effect on him. Since then Danny has devoted his life’s work to improving the lives of children and families. In addition to providing therapy at Relationship HQ, Danny also provides mental health consultation to numerous preschools across the city.
“Everything you need is already within you!” Danny believes in empowering clients with what’s already inside of them. He believes that people already carry with them the ingredients for change. With this in mind he is committed to establishing a collaborative relationship based on empathy, trust and respect where clients feel safe to explore their strengths and make the changes they desire.
Danny Gomez
Debeka Bennett
My Specialty
Dr. Bennett specializes in working with individuals with racial, ethnic, and cultural identity development concerns, as well as individuals who want to improve their communication style in various relational settings (e.g., work, school, romantic relationships) and have a better understanding of themselves. She helps individuals struggling with closeness and intimacy in their relationships. Dr. Bennett also works with individuals with a history of trauma and individuals experiencing anxiety.
Dr. Bennett received her doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology from Seton Hall University. Her clinical experiences have afforded her the opportunity to work with diverse populations and age groups in various clinical settings, with a range of psychiatric and medical diagnoses. She has worked with individuals, couples and families experiencing emotional, behavioral, medical, psychological, and relational concerns.
At 4 years old, Dr. Bennett told her family she wanted to be a “doctor that talks to people”. That was her way of describing a psychologist. Young Dr. Bennett frequently observed her family and people in her community struggling to express themselves in healthy ways and feel comfortable being themselves without feeling shame or guilt. That initially sparked her interest in wanting to actively listen to and understand various types of people. At a young age, she noticed the difference in people’s behavior and interactions with others when they had the opportunity to express themselves freely without restraints and potential blacklash.
Dr. Bennett is passionate about destigmatizing mental health and encouraging help seeking behaviors, in an effort to help her clients foster healthy self-love, develop a better understanding of self, and have better discernment skills to cultivate healthy relationships with themselves and others. She is committed to working collaboratively with individuals to help them identify and live out their vision of a fulfilling life.
Call Relationship HQ at 212-730-7400 to schedule a 15-minute or complimentary phone or in-person meet and greet to learn more about our clinicians.
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