Columbia University Health Services
About Us
About Us
Richard J. Eichler
Executive Director
Counseling & Psychological Services
Dr. Richard J. Eichler joined Health Services at Columbia in 1986 and has been Director since 1992. Prior to coming to HSC, he worked at the Preventive Intervention Research Center for Child Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he studied the delivery of health care services to disabled and chronically ill children, and provided psychotherapy to a culturally diverse population. He has taught undergraduate courses in Human Development at Columbia College and graduate courses in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Developmental Psychopathology to doctoral candidates in Clinical and Counseling Psychology at Teachers College. Richard earned his B.A., M.S., M.Phil, and Ph.D. at Columbia University, and completed a clinical psychology internship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
His professional interests include psychological opportunities and pitfalls during adolescence and young adulthood, and early intervention and prevention strategies. He is also interested in helping students with learning disabilities navigate university life, and helping young adults and their parents renegotiate their evolving relationships. In addition to his work at Columbia, he is on the teaching and supervising faculty of the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Training Program at the William Alanson White Institute, and has recently served as a consultant to the College Mental Health section of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. He is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and community events on topics ranging from adjusting to college to the social and emotional concomitants of learning disabilities to suicide prevention.
Richard co-authored papers and reports early in his career on services for chronically ill children, and has most recently contributed a chapter on developmental considerations in college counseling to the text, College Mental Health Practice.
Education
- Ph.D.
Certifications and Licensure
- Licensed to practice psychology in the State of New York.
Professional Experience
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- Columbia University
- William Alanson White Institute
Professional Memberships
- Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors
- American Psychological Association
- New York State Psychological Association
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Important Phone Numbers
| General Information | 212 854 2284 |
| After-hours urgent health concerns | 212 854 9797 |
| CAVA (Ambulance) | 212 854 5555 |
| Rape Crisis/Anti-Violence Support Center | 212 854 WALK |
| Uptown Campus Public Safety |
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| - On-Campus | 7-7979 |
| - Off-Campus | 212-305-8100 |