RICHARD S. STERN, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychologist

Pennsylvania Licensed
Sessions via Telehealth

tel: 215.888.7785

∙ Building cooperation and openness in place of defiance and lying

∙ Cultivating self-control in place of anger and emotional storms

∙ Fostering contentment and self-confidence in place of sadness and worry

∙ Developing genuine closeness in place of clinging, rebellion, irritability, or withdrawal

∙ Promoting understanding and teamwork instead of criticism and mistrust

Richard S. Stern, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 30 years of experience serving children, adolescents, adults, and families. Dr. Stern has an extraordinary knack for developing a therapeutic bond and fostering change with even the most resistant, angry, or withdrawn individuals. Using clinically proven family and individual therapy modalities, he treats a wide variety issues, including depression, anxiety, aggression, defiance, relationship strain and repair, parenting challenges, ethnic identity issues, and acculturation/differing values challenges for individuals new to the USA or Philadelphia.

Dr. Stern addresses core relational issues of trust, protection, loyalty, authority, and forgiveness to help families heal from generational wounds and allow children to develop appropriate individuation using the secure base of a trusting parent-child relationship. He has extensive experience working with families from an exceptionally wide array of ethnic and class backgrounds.

Dr. Stern specializes in attachment-based and emotion-focused work. He uses a variety of family therapy, cognitive behavioral, and psychodynamic approaches, developed during his clinical training at the Child Guidance Center of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania Counseling and Psychological Services, the Coatesville Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, North East Treatment Centers, and Beth Israel Hospital (New York City).

After graduating from Tufts University magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, he worked extensively in child care services in Boston. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he was awarded the prestigious New School Prize Fellowship.

He has published a number of research articles in the area of family therapy treatment for depressed adolescents. His current research addresses the dynamics and dangers of parent disappointment, especially for immigrant and first-generation families.