Internship Directors

Chief of Psychology and Director of Psychology Training

Simon A. Rego, PsyD, ABPP, A-CBT, is Chief of Psychology and Director of Psychology Training at Montefiore and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Dr. Rego is a licensed clinical psychologist more than 25 years of experience in using Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and other evidence-based psychological treatments. He completed his first two postdoctoral years at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety, directed by Dr. Edna B. Foa, an internationally renowned expert in the treatment of anxiety disorders and creator of Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and exposure and ritual prevention (EX/RP) therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Dr. Rego is Board Certified in Cognitive Behavioral Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology, Certified in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy by the Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies, and Certified as a Cognitive Therapy Trainer/Consultant by the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies. He is a Fellow of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, a Founding Clinical Fellow of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, and a Diplomate and Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies. He is listed in the Who's Who in America and the Who's Who in Medicine Academia and was the recipient of the 2008 Award for Distinguished Early Career Psychologists by the New York State Psychological Association, the 2015 Peterson Prize from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University, and the 2018 Jerilyn Ross Clinician Advocate Award from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Dr. Rego is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, was a Founding Member of the New York City Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association, and was Founding President of the Cognitive Therapy Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Dr. Rego is an Editorial Board member of numerous journals, has over 30 publications (including 4 books) and more than 160 professional presentations, and constantly works with the media to educate the public about the latest mental health news using a simple, non-sensationalized approach.

Associate Director of Psychology Training – Child and Adolescent Specialization

Sandra S. Pimentel, PhD is Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychology, Associate Director of Psychology Training, and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is also Director of the Anxiety and Mood Program in the Child Outpatient Psychiatry Division and co-director of the Becoming an Emerging Adult (BEAM) Program. In 2022, she has received the Psychology Internship Training Program Award for Excellence in Education and in 2023, she received the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Award for Outstanding Mentorship.

From 2007 through 2015, Dr. Pimentel held the position of Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center, where she served as Senior Psychologist and Associate Director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CUCARD). Previously, she was a T32 NIMH Postdoctoral Training Fellow at New York State Psychiatric Institute (2004-2007) where she focused her research efforts on dissemination of evidence-based treatments.

Dr. Pimentel specializes in cognitive behavioral treatments (CBT) for children, adolescents, and young adults with anxiety, mood, and behavioral difficulties. She provides comprehensive assessments and consultations and individual, group and family therapy.

Advanced training and mentorship are at the core of Dr. Pimentel's professional interests. Her research interests have focused on the dissemination of evidenced-based interventions for child and adolescent disorders and the evaluation of the most effective strategies for training and transporting treatments to school and community settings. Throughout each year, she delivers multiple professional training workshops on CBT for anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior disorders in youth, as well as workshops for parents and community organizations. Dr. Pimentel served as a CBT consultant for community- and school-based clinicians throughout New York State and for the New York State Office of Mental Health's statewide clinician training initiative. She was named a New York State Office of Mental Health Policy Scholar. In addition to teaching on evidence-based interventions for youth, she has developed and teaches curricula emphasizing health disparities, health advocacy, and social justice.

Dr. Pimentel is the current President-Elect of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. She also is involved in multiple community engagement initiatives in the Bronx including connecting with faith-based leaders, coordinating school supply and food drives, developing a robust Bronx Community Speakers Bureau, and spearheading voter registration drives.

Associate Director of Psychology Training – Combined Specialization

Amanda Zayde, PsyD, is an Attending Psychologist, Associate Director of Psychology Training, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is also the founder and Director of the Connecting and Reflecting Experience (CARE), a bi-generational, transdiagnostic, mentalizing-focused group parenting program, as well as co-founder and co-Director of the Becoming an Emerging Adult at Montefiore (BEAM) program.

Dr. Zayde is active in training and mentorship and has been recognized for her research. She is Principal Investigator of the CARE program’s ongoing community-based clinical trial supported by the FAR Fund, and co-investigator for a series of research grants funded by the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the National Institute of Health. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences. She also provides the media with expert insights on relationships, stress management, parent-child relationships, and emerging adulthood.

Dr. Zayde specializes in attachment theory and the use of mentalizing-focused parenting interventions to dismantle the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment and attachment trauma, group psychotherapy, and the assessment and treatment of adolescents and emerging adults.

Dr. Zayde is also Associate Training Director of Mothering from the Inside Out, an evidence-based parenting intervention designed specifically for mothers in recovery from substance use disorders, developed by her late mentor, Dr. Nancy Suchman.

Associate Director of Psychology Training – Adult Specialization

Rachel Held, PhD, is the Lead Psychologist at the Adult Outpatient Psychiatry Division (AOPD) at Montefiore’s Moses Hospital, Associate Director of Psychology Training, and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Dr. Held recently joined Montefiore after working at Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS), a network of community mental health clinics in Westchester that focus on treating marginalized and underserved communities. There, she served in many administrative roles including coordinating the psychology externship program and the clinic’s intensive outpatient program and implementing suicide prevention initiatives. Prior to her time at WJCS, Dr. Held worked at the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center at the VA Medical Center in East Orange, NJ, where she was involved in clinical research and treated veterans with physical injuries and insomnia.

Dr. Held is deeply committed to teaching and supervision. In her role at WJCS she trained and supervised psychology interns, externs and clinical staff, and taught several didactic and continuing education courses within the agency on a number of evidence-based interventions. Dr. Held specializes in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and works with adults with anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, and borderline personality disorder. She also has an interest in integrating behavioral medicine treatment into mental health settings, and has expertise in CBT for insomnia, CBT for chronic pain, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy, a new evidence-based treatment for chronic pain. She has created referral services and groups to enhance mental health outcomes by adding focused treatment of insomnia and chronic pain.

Associate Director of Psychology Training – Neuropsychology Specialization

Bryan Freilich, PsyD, ABPP, is Director of the Neuropsychology Assessment Service at Montefiore and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Dr. Freilich received his Psy.D. from Yeshiva University, Ferkauf Clinical School of Psychology and completed his internship and postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is board certified in clinical neuropsychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology and has been an attending neuropsychologist at Montefiore Medical Center since 2006.

Dr. Freilich’s clinical and research interests include dementia differential diagnosis and the neuropsychological screening/assessment of traumatic brain injury, sickle cell disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Dr. Freilich presently serves as the Club Neuropsychologist for the New York City Football Club (NYCFC) of Major League Soccer (MLS).

Dr. Freilich is actively involved in several professional organizations, including the New York Neuropsychology Group (NYNG) where he has served on the Board of Directors as Membership Chair.