Individual Therapy

Individual Therapy in Pittsford, NY

Deciding to invest in therapy is one of the more meaningful things you can do for yourself — and for every relationship in your life. The returns, as I like to tell people, tend to be significant.

I am a clinical psychologist with a deep commitment to relational, trauma-informed care. My work is grounded in Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT), which holds that human beings heal and grow through genuine connection — not in spite of vulnerability, but because of it. In practice, this means that therapy with me is not a detached, clinical exercise. It is a real relationship, with real engagement, in which I show up as a full human being alongside you.

I also incorporate techniques from DBT, CBT, and mindfulness-based approaches when they are a useful fit — but the relationship always comes first.

Eating Disorder Recovery

This is work I have devoted my career to, and it remains close to my heart.

I believe that healing from an eating disorder — whether that is anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, ARFID, or a more diffuse struggle with disordered eating and body image — is fundamentally about reconnection. Reconnection with yourself, with your body, with other people, and with a life that feels worth fully inhabiting.

I approach eating disorder treatment through the lens of RCT, which understands disordered eating not as a personal failure or a matter of willpower, but as a response to disconnection — from self, from others, from a culture that sends relentless and often harmful messages about bodies and food. My work is weight-inclusive and anti-oppressive, and I bring extensive clinical experience across all levels of care, including inpatient, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient settings.

What this means in the therapy room is that we will not spend our time solely focused on behaviors. We will go deeper — into what the eating disorder has been doing for you, what it has protected you from, and what becomes possible when you begin to need it less.

Recovery is not linear, and I will not pretend otherwise. But I have walked alongside a lot of people through this, and I have tremendous faith in what becomes possible.

Beyond Eating Disorders: What Else Brings People to My Office

Eating disorder recovery is my specialty, but it is far from the only reason people find their way to me — and I genuinely love the full range of this work.

People come to individual therapy with me for all kinds of reasons, including:

Life transitions — The moments when one chapter ends and another has not yet clearly begun. Becoming a parent. Losing a parent. A divorce, a career change, a move, a child leaving home. Transitions are disorienting even when they are chosen, and therapy can be a place to make meaning of them.

Anxiety — The persistent hum of worry, the anticipatory dread, the body that will not quite settle. Whether anxiety shows up as a quiet constant or arrives in acute waves, there is real relief available — and we will find an approach that fits how your anxiety actually works.

Relationship struggles — Difficulty in a partnership, estrangement from a family member, a pattern that keeps repeating across relationships. So much of individual therapy, even when it is just the two of us in the room, is really about the relationships in your life.

Identity and self-worth — Questions about who you are, what you want, and whether you are allowed to take up space. These are not small questions, and they deserve real time and attention.

Mothers navigating it all — I have a particular soft spot for mothers — for the complexity of that identity, the ways it intersects with everything else, and the degree to which mothers are so often the last person on their own list. You are allowed to be on the list.

Processing the past — Old wounds that still have weight. Things that happened that were never fully witnessed or spoken aloud. Therapy can be a place to finally set some of that down.

What Working With Me Looks Like

I typically begin with one or two sessions to get a sense of each other and make sure we are a good fit — for you and for what you are bringing. From there, we decide together how frequently to meet. Most people I work with meet weekly or twice weekly, particularly early on.

Sessions are 53 minutes for standard individual therapy.

I bring warmth, directness, and a fair amount of genuine curiosity to this work. I am not a blank-screen therapist. I will engage with you, reflect things back, occasionally say something that surprises you, and take seriously both what you say and what sits underneath it. I also have been known to be funny — not as a deflection, but because humor is sometimes exactly what the moment calls for.

I work in person at my office in Pittsford, NY and via telehealth throughout New York State.

A Few Things Worth Knowing

My therapy dog, Pepper — an English Cream Golden Retriever with exceptional empathy and a passion for stuffed animals — is in the office most days. If you have allergies or feel her presence would not be a good fit for your sessions, we will simply meet virtually instead. No questions asked.

I am in-network with Aetna and can provide documentation for out-of-network reimbursement for other insurers. You can find full financial information here.

Ready to Get Started?

If something here resonates — even if you are not entirely sure what you are looking for yet — I would love to hear from you.

Schedule an Intake Appointment →

Or reach out directly at connect@daytonwalsh.com or 585-210-2028.

Dayton R. Walsh, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist in Pittsford, NY offering individual therapy for eating disorder recovery, life transitions, anxiety, and relational healing. She sees clients in person in Pittsford, NY and via telehealth throughout New York State.