Gary Katz is a psychotherapist and founded The Center for Intimacy Recovery in New York which focuses primarily on intimacy and relationships. He has found that without a sense of intimacy with oneself, people can’t fully experience intimacy with someone else. Our hearts are fragile, so we develop strategies to keep them safe and avoid getting hurt. Often these strategies later become maladaptive and stop serving us or they hold us back from achieving the connection and intimacy we are seeking. These get labeled as alcoholism or substance abuse disorder, sex addiction, eating disorders, codependency, people pleasing, etc but those are just various stops on a much bigger ride - the ride of intimacy and connection with yourself and then others. The Center for Intimacy Recovery helps clients find ways to have the intimacy and connection in life that they are seeking and to uncover all the ways that they have learned to play it safe and protect their hearts which at times can get in the way of intimacy. Prior to opening this practice, Gary worked in education for over 20 years as a rabbi. To gain a better understanding around healthy sexuality and treatment for compulsive and destructive sexual behaviors and the trauma created through intimate betrayal, Gary became a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists and has studied at the Modern Sex Therapy Institute. He is also a member of the International Institute of Trauma and Addiction Professionals where he became a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist and a Certified Partner Trauma Therapist.  Searching for ways to do deeper work with clients and to contact trauma and feelings stored in the body, Gary has studied Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, and EMDR.