Bernadette Dougherty, PsyD

Bernadette Dougherty, PsyD

Bernadette Dougherty, PsyD, is a Licensed Psychologist providing individual and group therapy for teens and adults.

Her approach to therapy is individualized and validating, working collaboratively with each client to reach their therapy goals in a meaningful way.

Education and Training

Bernadette earned her Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology from La Salle University, training at sites including the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Cognitive Therapy, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She completed her doctoral internship at Montefiore Medical Center, in Bronx, NY, learning specialized interventions for trauma, anxiety, depression, emotion regulation, crisis intervention, harm reduction, solid organ transplant, chronic illness, and LGBTQIA+/gender-affirming care. Bernadette completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at Princeton University, with advanced specialty training in DBT, trauma, and harm reduction approaches to high-risk behaviors and substance use.

Specialties

• Anxiety and Depression
• Emotion Regulation
• Trauma
• Suicide and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
• Grief and Loss
• Perfectionism
• Care-giving
• Post high-school and college transition
• Stress reduction
• Coping with Chronic Pain/Illness
• LGBTQIA+ and Gender Affirming Care
• Insomnia
• Borderline Personality Disorder

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT is a treatment approach that teaches specific skills to decrease emotional intensity, regulate our daily experience of stress and emotions, gain insight into factors that influence our emotions and behaviors, and to improve relationships and communication. It incorporates both mindfulness-based and behavior change interventions, while helping clients identify various factors that impact emotions and reactions. The goal of DBT is to help clients use skills to feel effective at managing difficult experiences, while strengthening value and meaning in one’s life.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT is a treatment approach that incorporates mindfulness, cognitive, and behavioral strategies to increase value and meaning in one’s life, while learning skills to become unstuck from difficult situations and emotions.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

MBSR uses mindfulness strategies to improve stress and emotional reactions in response to difficult experiences.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT interventions are designed to identify and change negative or unhelpful patterns in our thinking and behavioral responses.

Positive Psychology

Positive psychology incorporates mindfulness, cognitive, and behavioral interventions to increase a person’s strength and resilience in the face of adversity. This technique focuses on increasing the positive in someone’s life, as opposed to decreasing their negative experiences.