About the Director

Paula Ochs is a family therapist and supervisor, practicing in New Jersey. She received her MSW from NYU in 1996. Paula has trained extensively in family therapy. She graduated from the Ackerman Institute for the Family in 2001 and has trained with Maurizio Andolfi, Jorge Colapinto, Lee Combrinck-Graham, the Minuchin Center, and Jeff Zeig, among others. This year Paula is training in psychodrama and sociometry at the Psychodrama Training Institute of New York. Paula is a member of AFTA.

In 2006, Paula attended a conference in Oaxaca, Mexico, organized by Maurizio Andolfi called: "Working with marginalized families and communities; professionals in the trenches," which shaped a lot of her thinking about families and how they function. "I believe that what we call 'mental illness' is most often the fall out of trauma. I believe that immigration is one of the biggest traumas we can experience as human beings. It is the loss of all that is familiar: language, customs, foods, smells, laws: an entire way of life. This belief informs much of the work I am doing now as well as my thoughts about my own family of origin.

Paula created this website/organization in order to foster more dialog among the family therapists she has met, and hopes to meet, from all over the world.