About

Cara Brendler, LCSW is a family, couples, + individual psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan and is a faculty member at the Minuchin Center for the Family. Zoom sessions are also available.

Practice

Cara specializes in working with families, the father-daughter dynamic, and women's issues. She runs therapy groups for new families, "Intentional Parenting" workshops, and women's therapy groups focused on creating balance and living more purposefully. Cara is co-author of "From Estrangement to Engagement: Helping Fathers and Daughters Connect" (Psychotherapy Networker Magazine, 2011.) Areas of interest and study include mindfulness and intentional living. 

Teaching

She teaches Structural Family Therapy through The Minuchin Center for the Family to mental health programs and postgraduate practitioners interested in learning more about how to incorporate SFT.

Experience

Cara has extensive experience working with families exhibiting abuse and neglect, suicidal thinking and behavior, depression, anxiety, mood disorders, psychosomatic disorders (including anorexia, bulimia, and overeating), school avoidance and behavioral problems, attention difficulties and impulsivity, infidelity, and divorce and remarriage.

Cara has presented on working with fathers and daughters in the family context with her own father, also a family therapist, at multiple venues, including the Psychotherapy Networker National Symposium, The Minuchin Center for the Family, and Bryn Mawr College. She has co-led family and couples therapy training groups for therapists and run therapy groups for teenagers and young women. Cara has also presented to parents of high school seniors on the transition to college/post-high school life. 

Cara speaks French and brings her sensibilities and background as an artist, athlete, and mom of two into her work as a therapist.