Emilia Mikrut
Dr. Emilia Mikrut (she/her) is completing her postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia Health Counseling and Psychological Services during the 2024-2025 academic year.
She is excited to work with undergraduate and graduate students to address issues including interpersonal difficulties, identity concerns, trauma, struggles with anxiety and mood, and adjustment to college life. She is particularly interested in trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, military veterans’ issues, and autism spectrum disorder.
Emilia received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from St. John's University and completed her internship at the Manhattan VA. At the VA, Emilia worked with a diverse group of veterans within a range of settings including the PTSD clinic, inpatient psychiatric care, the neuropsychological evaluation service, and primary/palliative care. During her doctoral training, she also provided clinical services at Queens Hospital and St. John's University’s community mental health clinic.
As a clinician, Emilia's therapeutic orientation is integrative, weaving together psychodynamic relational theory with elements of cognitive behavioral therapy. Her personal interest in the arts and storytelling serves as a useful framework for helping others navigate challenging life circumstances. Emilia believes that building a strong therapeutic relationship through authenticity, warmth, and collaboration is paramount in creating a space for clients to begin engaging in self-exploration and enacting positive change.
Emilia's approach to clinical work is also informed by her research background, which is focused on understanding how social determinants of health (e.g., stigma/discrimination; financial instability; interpersonal relationship quality) shape the ways one views themselves, others, and the world around them. Her dissertation explored how health-related social needs affect inner capacity to make meaning of and psychologically adjust to the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In her spare time, Emilia enjoys reading, playing board/card games with friends, going on long walks, and attending art shows around the city.