Dr. Dana Dorfman has 30 years of clinical practice experience treating children, adolescents, parents and adults. As a passionate advocate of mental health, she’s a public speaker, workshop facilitator, and consultant working with schools, parenting centers, and mental health organizations, as well as the author of When Worry Works: How to Harness Your Parenting Stress and Guide Your Teen to Success.

ABOUT dr. dana dorfman

Informed by her extensive theoretical training in psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral and mindfulness, Dana provides patients with a flexible, eclectic and uniquely individualized approach to therapy. She applies her in-depth research of anxiety and family relationships into translatable and accessible practices.

With relatability and humor, patients are invited to deepen their self-understanding, enhance their relationships, and manage the stresses of their complex daily lives—with greater satisfaction, purpose and meaning. Dana partners with patients to achieve their identified goals in alignment with their core values. See her Psychology Today profile.

HER Approach to psychotherapy

Dr. Dorfman earned her M.S.W. and Ph.D. in Clinical Social Work from the Silver School of Social Work at New York University (NYU). She has worked with mental health agencies, parenting centers, public and private schools, including The Dalton School, NYU Child Study Center, Soho Parenting Center, Freedom Institute and the JCC Manhattan. She was also co-host of the 2 Moms on the Couch podcast with comedian Amy Veltman.

She’s contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Parents, Oprah Daily, and Refinery 29, among other publications. She lives and works in New York City with her husband, their two kids, and their dog, Winnie, whose namesake is inspired by psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott.

HER background

“Rhoda Morgenstern meets Sigmund Freud” is how one audience member described Dr. Dorfman. With thirty years’ experience and academic research, a New Yorker’s sense of humor, and a mother’s warmth, she unpacks complex and sometimes taboo topics with wisdom and relatability.

She believes research should be brought down to earth from the “ivory tower” in funny, accessible ways. She’s self-revealing as well, because in her experience, being honest with her issues helps build trust with her patients and an audience.

She’s available to connect with small groups in intimate settings like book clubs and community groups as well as with larger audiences like schools, conferences, and houses of worship.

Email info@tinyapplegroup.com to arrange an engagement.

Events + speaking

Dana Dorfman - JCC Manhattan - Vanessa Kroll

signature topics

Thanks to technology and the climate crisis—to name a few—these are two generations like no other before them. (She knows this well, as a mom to two Gen Zs.)
Dana goes beyond the hysteria and headlines and gets to the root of what parents and caregivers need to know.
From her years of working with high-achievers, Dana gently invites audiences to consider how their cultural and personal relationship with achievement affect their family—and how to break negative patterns.
Dana helps parents work on building a healthier relationship during the most tumultuous period of their kid’s development. This includes:
- Shame-free framework for parents to help guide their teen to success
- How parents’ fixation on the future can backfire—and what they can do about it
- Subtle shifts that parents can make right now that over time will make an impact on their relationship
Dana dives beyond “male loneliness epidemic” click-bait and helps men facilitate connection so they can be healthy, successful, and compassionate.

Dr. Dorfman IN CONVERSATION

What Fresh Hell

Dana joins hosts Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables as they discuss motherhood, how anxiety can be advantageous, how to contain your teen's anxiety without absorbing it, an cognitive distortions.

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Parent Footprint with Dr. Dan Peters

Dr. Dan and Dr. Dorfman unpack the growing national teen mental health crisis: achievement pressure, plus how parents inadvertently and unknowingly exacerbate worry and anxiety.

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No Guilt Mom

Host JoAnn and Dana share laughs while discussing the Parenting Anxiety Reaction Types©, how parents inadvertently perpetuate their kids’ anxieties around achievement, and the challenges she faces while raising two teenagers in New York City.

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The Mom Room

Host Renee Reina and Dana explore whether quitting is a bad thing, and what our definition of success for our children looks like. They also dive into “mommy” issues, too.

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Mindful Educators

Dana sits with hosts and educators Erin and Dave to discuss—what else?—anxiety and worry, plus Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations and the memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died.

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Morning Wave in Busan

Dana took a break from her anxiety discourse to talk with Morning Wave in Busan about why people love personality tests and if they’re misused. It was fun!

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