Ethan Sapienza is a part of BPS’s team in California as an ACSW, while also seeing clients virtually in New York as an LMSW. Ethan values a validating, compassionate approach to therapeutic work, prioritizing the relationship between therapist and client. He is a part of the DBT team at BPS, offering consultation during weekly team meetings, co-leading DBT groups, and working with adults, adolescents and children on improving emotion regulation, increasing impulse control, and developing effective and productive coping mechanisms. He greatly enjoys the work of DBT, utilizing the balance of acceptance and change to help clients achieve their goals. Ethan also works with those experiencing anxiety and depression, recovering from trauma, and clients who are struggling with OCD, as he is trained in Exposure and Response Prevention (Ex/RP) and is currently receiving training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Ethan completed his Master’s degree in Social Work from Columbia University, where he was selected to be a part of the DBT Intensive Training Program and Lab, under the supervision of Dr. André Ivanoff. While at Columbia, Ethan completed Behavioral Tech’s Intensive Training in DBT with Randy Wolbert and Gwen Abney-Cunningham. Additionally, Ethan gained experience in providing cognitive behavioral interventions, Ex/RP for OCD, and EMDR while being a part of the team at Brooklyn Heights Behavioral Associates, a private practice that specializes in comprehensive DBT.

Ethan has also completed trainings on suicide risk assessment, the fundamentals of Motivational Interviewing, utilizing DBT for eating disorders, and how to use functional analyses with individuals and families. Prior to practicing DBT, Ethan worked as an in school counselor to high schoolers, taught kindergarteners and first graders evidence based social and emotional learning curricula, and co-lead a middle school boys mentorship group. He also worked as a data collector and team leader for the NYU ROSES lab, which has sought to prove the effectiveness of a community based alternative to incarceration for adolescent girls in New York City.

In his free time, Ethan enjoys frequenting his local movie theater with his partner and defending his home state of New Jersey (which does have the best bagels and pizza).