Practitioner record · Checked 9 Oct 2026

David Ackerman has been in practice 22 years and is licensed in New York. David lists stress, Anxiety, relationship issues and parenting issues among 69 subjects on the BetterHelp roster.

Everything below is either quoted from David's own BetterHelp listing, taken from public licensing records, or written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such. Nothing here is an availability promise, a review, or a rating.

22years in practice
69subjects listed
8approaches listed

01 · Who David works with

David works with stress, Anxiety, relationship issues and parenting issues

David lists 18 specialisms and 51 further focus areas. Specialisms are the subjects David chose to list first, which is the closest a listing gets to “this is my actual practice”.

Specialisms
  • Stress, Anxiety
  • Relationship issues
  • Parenting issues
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Coping with life changes
  • Addictions
  • LGBT
  • Family conflicts
  • Trauma and abuse
  • Grief
  • Intimacy-related issues
  • Eating disorders
  • Sleeping disorders
  • Anger management
  • Self esteem
  • Career difficulties
  • Coaching
  • Compassion fatigue
Also experienced with
  • Abandonment
  • Adoption and foster care
  • Aging and geriatric issues
  • Antisocial personality
  • Attachment issues
  • Avoidant personality
  • Blended family issues
  • Body image
  • Cancer
  • Chronic pain, illness, and disability
  • Co-morbidity
  • Codependency
  • Commitment issues
  • Communication problems
  • Control issues
  • Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
  • Dependent personality
  • Divorce and separation
  • Eating and food-related issues
  • Family of origin issues
  • Family problems
  • Fertility issues
  • Forgiveness
  • Guilt and shame
  • Impulsivity
  • Infidelity
  • Isolation / loneliness
  • Jealousy
  • Life purpose
  • Money and financial issues
  • Mood disorders
  • Multicultural concerns
  • Narcissism
  • Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
  • Panic disorder and panic attacks
  • Paranoia
  • Personality disorders
  • Phobias
  • Postpartum depression
  • Post-traumatic stress
  • Pregnancy and childbirth
  • Prejudice and discrimination
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
  • Self-love
  • Sexual assault and abuse
  • Sexual dysfunction
  • Sexuality
  • Social anxiety and phobia
  • Women's issues
  • Workplace issues
  • Young adult issues

02 · In David's own words

What David says about the work

Reproduced in full and unedited - not summarised, not tightened, not rewritten in a house voice.

I am an individual and couples therapist licensed in New York, with over 20 years of clinical experience. I have worked with clients with a wide range of concerns, including depression, anxiety and relationship issues. I have also helped clients with a wide range of concerns, including depression, anxiety and relationship issues. I have also helped those who have experienced trauma and emotional abuse. I am considered to be warm and compassionate, and my style is working interactively with clients. My approach combines humanistic, psychodynamic and goal-oriented therapy with a wide range of client issues, and a diverse client base. I have worked with chronic mental illness, including anxiety, depression, personality and eating disorders. In addition to self-esteem issues, life transitions and chronic illness. My goal is to establish a meaningful alliance, and collaborate wih you to develop better coping skills and more satisfying relaionships. I look forward to working with you!

David Ackerman, on the BetterHelp listing · read 9 Oct 2026

03 · How David works

The 8 approaches David lists, in plain English

These are the clinical methods David lists. The descriptions are Maker Therapy's, not David's - a general explanation of what each method is, so the list means something before you have spoken to anybody. They are not a claim about how David runs a session.

Acceptance and Commitment TherapyACT
Rather than trying to argue a painful thought away, ACT works on loosening its grip and getting on with what matters to you anyway. Sessions spend real time naming your values, then building action around them while difficult feelings are still present.
Client-Centred TherapyPerson-centred · Rogerian
The therapist does not steer toward a technique or a diagnosis. They offer sustained, non-judgemental attention and reflect back what they hear, on the premise that people find their own direction when they are genuinely listened to. Often what people mean by “someone who just gets it”.
Emotionally Focused TherapyEFT
Built for couples and rooted in attachment: the recurring argument is treated as a cycle two people are stuck in rather than as one person's fault. Sessions work to interrupt the cycle and get to what each person is actually asking for underneath it.
Motivational InterviewingMI
A way of talking about change with somebody who is genuinely in two minds about it. The therapist does not argue for the change; they help you say your own reasons out loud, which is the part that predicts whether it happens. Common around substance use and health behaviour.
Narrative Therapy
Treats the story you tell about your life as something that can be examined and retold rather than as the plain facts. Separates the person from the problem - “the anxiety” rather than “your anxiety” - to make room for the parts the current story leaves out.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Works on the assumption that current patterns - in relationships, at work, in how you treat yourself - have a history, and that seeing the history loosens the pattern. Less structured than CBT, usually longer, and more interested in what comes up unbidden than in a weekly agenda.
Solution-Focused Brief TherapySFBT
Starts from where you want to end up rather than from how you got here. Sessions look for the times the problem is already smaller and work out what is different about those, so the number of sessions tends to be short and the work concrete.
Trauma-Focused TherapyTF-CBT · trauma-informed
CBT adapted for people whose difficulty is rooted in a frightening or overwhelming event. Pacing is the point: safety and stabilisation come first, the memory itself is approached gradually and only when you are ready, and the aim is that recalling it stops hijacking the present.

04 · What happens next

From this page to a first session

David practises through BetterHelp, so the route in is BetterHelp's. This is that sequence, written by Maker Therapy from the platform's published process - not a description of David's own practice, and not a promise about how quickly anything happens.

  1. A questionnaire, not a booking form

    BetterHelp opens with a set of questions about what you are dealing with, what you want from therapy, and any preferences on the therapist. You are not booking David at this point.

  2. Naming David specifically

    BetterHelp matches algorithmically by default, so asking for David is a step you have to take. There is a field for requesting a specific therapist during sign-up, and you can switch afterwards from your account. Starting from a link on this page does not by itself assign you to David.

  3. If the caseload is full

    You will be offered somebody else rather than put on a waitlist. Worth knowing, because it is easy to assume a match is the person you asked for.

  4. The first conversation

    A first session is typically history and orientation: what brought you, what has been tried, what you want to be different. It is also where the questions in the next section belong.

  5. If the fit is wrong

    Changing therapist on BetterHelp does not need a reason. A first session that does not click is common and is not a verdict on therapy. That option existing is the main practical difference between a platform and a private practice.

05 · Before you commit

4 questions worth asking David

Built from what David actually lists, so they are answerable and specific rather than generic. Maker Therapy's, not David's - David has not seen them and is under no obligation to answer any of them.

  • “You list both Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Client-Centred Therapy. Which do you lean on with someone like me?”

    Those two point in different directions - one structured and led by the therapist, the other led by you. The answer tells you what the sessions will actually feel like.

  • “How do you decide when someone is ready to work on a traumatic memory itself?”

    Pacing is the biggest safety question in trauma work. A clear, unhurried answer here matters more than any credential.

  • “With 22 years in, what has changed most in how you work?”

    Long experience is only an advantage if it has been examined. This tends to surface whether it has.

  • “How do you handle the gap between sessions if something comes up?”

    On BetterHelp this varies a great deal by therapist. Better to know the rhythm now than to discover it on a bad week.

06 · Practical details

Credentials and licensing

Credential
LCSW
Licensed in
New York
Licence
NY LCSW 038001
Licence number
038001
Licence expires
31 Dec 2028
NPI
1376572750
Years in practice
22
Gender
Male
Languages
English
International clients
Accepted
Listed since
15 May 2026

07 · Provenance

Where every line on this page came from

David's name, credential, state, subjects, approaches and biography are read from BetterHelp's therapist roster, which Maker Therapy re-reads once a day; this page reflects the reading taken on 9 Oct 2026. The licence number and NPI are cross-checked against public registers.

The plain-English method descriptions, the first-session walkthrough and the questions are written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such wherever they appear.

Maker Therapy is not BetterHelp, does not take bookings, and has not met David. There are no reviews or ratings on this page because we have no way to verify one. If you start therapy through a link here, we may be paid a commission - it does not change your price and it does not affect who appears here or in what order.

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