Katherine Compitus

Katherine Compitus is a licensed social worker in New York and New Jersey and holds a DSW from NYU Silver. Her research focuses primarily on pediatric mental health, attachment theory, and the human-animal bond. She is especially interested in crisis intervention and working with trauma survivors; she is a Certified Family Trauma Therapist and trained in EMDR. Katherine was a teacher prior to becoming a social worker and has almost 20 years of experience working with children and families.

Katherine currently works in private practice utilizing an integrative approach that combines psychodynamic psychotherapy, DBT, CBT, Animal-Assisted Therapy, EMDR, and Hypnotherapy. Katherine is the founder and chairman of Surrey Hills Sanctuary, a non-profit organization providing veterinary social work services in New York State. She also works at Orange Regional Medical Center as a psychiatric social worker in the emergency department where she works with clients with all types of mental illness (primarily those that are psychotic, suicidal or homicidal) and all ages, from pediatric through geriatric. Katherine has an MSW from NYU and also a BA in Spanish, an MSEd (Education) and an MA (Biopsychology) from Hunter College. Early in her social work career Katherine provided bilingual social work services at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and was a grief counselor for pet loss at the Animal Medical Center.

Education

• New York University
  Doctorate, Social Welfare

• Hunter College
  MA, Biopsychology (Animal Behavior)

• New York University
  MSW, Clinical Social Work

• eHunter College
  MSEd, Elementary Education

• Hunter College
  B.A, Spanish Literature

• lStuyvesant High School
  High School Regents Diploma, Math and Science