Abrah Sprung, PhD
LICENSED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST
I’’m Dr. Abrah Sprung - licensed clinical psychologist and EMDRIA-Certified EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapist and Approved Consultant with over 30 years of experience helping high-functioning adults move from managing well to truly living fully.
I use an integrative approach - EMDR combined with IFS (Internal Family Systems), somatic therapy, and relational therapy - that works comprehensively with the entire mind-body connection to get to the root of what’s keeping you stuck. This isn’t surface level coping or symptom management. This is depth-oriented work designed for people who are ready to heal what actually underlies the struggle.
My areas of specialty include complex trauma (PTSD/C-PTSD), childhood and relationship wounds, attachment and relational patterns, chronic stress and overwhelm, life transitions, caregiver stress, grief and loss, and health and medical trauma. These are issues that often need more than traditional talk therapy, coping tools, or a single therapy modality alone.
Am I the right therapist for you?
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With over 30 years of clinical experience and advanced credentials - including EMDRIA certification and Approved Consultant status, which represents supervision-level expertise for therapists in training - you’ll be working with someone who brings both depth of training and genuine understanding to this work. As an Approved Consultant, I provide guidance to other clinicians in developing their EMDR skills, which means I’m continually engaged in deepening my own expertise in this approach. Combining doctoral level training and continued study in the latest advances in IFS, somatic, and relational approaches, I tailor the work to you - your history, your nervous system, your goals.
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Our professional relationship is a foundation of this work. I will always make space for your questions and feedback so that I can help you as much as possible. Even if that means you disagree with me and want or need something different than what I might suggest.
This also means I won’t keep things cold and clinical. I highly value being both professional and relational in my work, meaning I’ll share things I’ve learned in my life experiences, such as how I really do understand that so many things are much easier said than done, and that just because something hard or terrible that’s happened might be over and behind you, it doesn’t mean you will automatically move on to feeling relieved and grateful.
I find so many times that the people I work with are comforted and reassured by learning that not only are they not alone in their struggles, but that a therapist has also struggled and found a way to move forward and live life with her hands on the wheel - rather than with anxiety and trauma as the driver.
If one of your personal goals is to become more compassionate and human with yourself and in your relationships, you’ll find a living, breathing, working model of that here.
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My early exposure to the power of EMDR was with 9/11 survivors who came to work with me still suffering lingering symptoms of trauma years later despite the passage of time, good support, and plenty of other types of mostly traditional talk therapy. It’s what hooked me, and led me to pursue advanced training and ultimately certification status as an EMDR therapist and consultant.
As a survivor of trauma myself, I can also personally attest to the strength of EMDR to truly deeply heal emotional distress, especially when blended with the integrative approaches I use in my practice. It’s not theoretical for me - I’ve done this work from the inside.
I'm also a dedicated learner, committed to continually expanding my knowledge of the latest advances in the field so I can bring them into my work with my clients. Other things to know about me: my family means the world to me, I love to sing, and I am a big fan of Pilates.
How is therapy with me different?
Many of my clients come to me after trying other approaches that didn’t go deep enough. They’ve done talk therapy, learned coping skills, maybe even gained real insight - but something still feels unaddressed. They often describe feeling that:
although they’ve gained insight into their concerns, they don’t know where to go from there.
although they have acquired some skills to navigate distress, it feels like a superficial fix, and they don’t feel healing has happened at the source.
although they know things to be true or make sense cognitively, they don’t really feel it in any deep down, unshakeable way.
although things are improved, they haven’t made the real progress they’ve been hoping for.
Our work together will be tailored to you.
We’ll begin by understanding what your concerns are and reviewing the personal history and relational dynamics that have contributed to what you’re experiencing now - difficulty managing emotions, struggles with boundaries and communication, or a persistent sense of dissatisfaction despite doing everything “right.”
From there, we’ll chose where to set our sights - whether that’s thoroughly processing trauma, addressing current struglles, releasing what your body and nervous system are holding, or working through the patterns and concerns that shape your life and relationships. We’ll go below the surface to address the issues wholly and at their root.
Our north star will be real healing, real growth, and real change. With each step forward together, you’ll be better equipped to cope with anxiety and ditressing emotions, difficult circumstances, or loss, to feel good within your relationships, and to be more at ease and confident that you can handle whatever comes your way.
My Approach
I use an integrated approach that combines four evidence-based modalitites. Each one addresses a different dimension of healing, and together they create the conditions for genuine, lasting transformation.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing)
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) is central to this work. It’s a therapy supported by 30+ years of research that is especially helpful in processing and healing emotional trauma and overwhelm. EMDR uses a technique called bilateral stimulation (such as moving your eyes back and forth, tapping, and sounds), that is based on what we’ve learned about how the brain and body naturally process experiences in a healthy way, like what happens in REM sleep. EMDR helps your nervous system process and file away emotional trauma and overwhelm that it’s been holding in unprocessed form, so you’re no longer staying stuck and getting triggered by what’s happened to you.
IFS (Internal Family Systems)
IFS (Internal Family Systems) - also called parts work - helps you understand and integrate all the different parts of you - parts that drive you forward, parts that hold you back or shut you down, protective parts, and parts that hold pain. These parts of yourself often originally developed to protect you during difficult or challenging circumstances in your past. IFS work helps you shift from strategies that are overly rigid or don’t serve you well, and helps you to adapt more flexible and effective responses instead.
Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy targets the physical fallout stored in your nervous system - the emotional pain and distress that shows up as tension and bracing, freezing, and emotional exhaustion and numbness. We now understand that emotional trauma and overwhelm lives on in your body, too - not just your mind - and this work helps your body let go of what talk alone can’t reach.
Relational Therapy
Relational therapy addresses the patterns that keep showing up in your relationships - why you repeat painful dynamics, why intimacy feels scary, why connection feels so hard. This work helps you understand and shift how you relate to others, and to yourself.
This integrated approach - EMDR with IFS, somatic therapy & relational therapy - is well-suited for high-functioning adults who are holding it all together and managing well on the outside while carrying a heavy burden on the inside, and who want to do the deep work of real change - not more tools to manage, but healing that reaches all the way down to the core.
Education, Credentials & Training
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science
Licensed in NY and NJ
Telehealth Certificate in FL
Authorized through APIT to provide interjurisdictional telehealth services in 40+ PSYPACT states
EDUCATION and LICENSURE
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) - EMDRIA Certified Therapist & EMDRIA Approved Consultant
Certified Perinatal Mental Health Provider (PMH-C)
Advanced EMDR and Trauma Training: FLASH Technique, R-TEP (for recent trauma), DeprEnd Protocol (for depression), Somatic Therapy (Movement, Breathing, Visualization, Hakomi, Somatic Experiencing, Polyvagal Theory), IFS & Ego State (Attachment)/Inner Child/Parts Work, Relational Therapy
CERTIFICATION and EMDR TRAINING
I work well with clients who…
Are curious, creative, and want to learn more about themselves.
Believe that difficult experiences affect the whole person - mind, body, heart, and soul.
Want to look back on their life in order to experience deeper healing.
Are looking to experience more joy, meaning, and ease in their life.
Want to feel more connected to themselves and to the people that matter in their lives.
Ready to move forward?
Click below to access my calendar and book a complimentary
initial consultation with me.