Psychology Internship Training Program Leadership & Faculty

Shireen L. Rizvi, PhD, ABPP, es Directora de Capacitación en Psicología y Directora de Servicios e Investigación de TDC en Montefiore y Profesora de Psiquiatría y Ciencias del Comportamiento en Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Dr. Rizvi is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 25 years of experience in using Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Washington. She completed her psychology internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Boston VA Healthcare System, National Center for PTSD. From 2009-2024, Dr. Rizvi was Professor of Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. Her research interests include improving outcomes, training, and dissemination of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for the treatment of complex and severe populations. Dr. Rizvi has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Rutgers University, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) for her research. Her work has resulted in over 100 articles and book chapters, as well as a sole-authored book entitled Chain Analysis in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and a co-edited volume, DBT in Clinical Practice (2nd edition). Her latest book, Real Skills for Real Life, is designed to teach DBT skills to anyone who desires to improve their coping in life.

La Dra. Rizvi está colegiada en psicología cognitivo conductual por la American Board of Professional Psychology y en terapia dialéctico conductual por la Linehan Board of Certification. Es fellow de la Asociación de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales, así como de la Asociación Estadounidense de Psicología (División 12). Formó parte de la junta directiva de la Asociación de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales, y fue miembro fundadora de la Asociación de Terapia Cognitivo Conductual de la Ciudad de Nueva York y de la junta directiva de la Asociación Mundial de TDC.

La Dra. Rizvi ha capacitado a cientos de estudiantes y profesionales de todo el mundo en TDC. Recibió el Premio Spotlight on a Mentor de la Asociación de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales (2017), el Premio Perry Hoffman al Servicio de la Sociedad Internacional para la Mejora y la Enseñanza de la TDC (ISITDBT, por sus siglas en inglés; 2020) y fue nombrada Profesora del Año por Excelencia en la Enseñanza por la Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (2022).

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

El Dr. Rego es psicólogo clínico acreditado con más de 25 años de experiencia en el uso de la terapia cognitivo conductual (TCC) y otros tratamientos psicológicos basados en la evidencia. Completó sus dos primeros años de postdoctorado en el Centro para el Tratamiento y Estudio de la Ansiedad de la Universidad de Pensilvania, dirigido por la Dra. Edna B. Foa, experta de renombre internacional en el tratamiento de trastornos de ansiedad. La Dra. Foa es la creadora de la terapia de exposición prolongada (EP) para el trastorno de estrés postraumático (TEPT), así como de la terapia de exposición con prevención de respuesta (ERP, por sus siglas en inglés) para el trastorno obsesivo compulsivo.

El Dr. Rego está colegiado en psicología cognitivo conductual por la American Board of Professional Psychology, en terapia cognitivo conductual por la Asociación Canadiense de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales, y como instructor y consultor en terapia cognitiva por la Academia de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales. Es fellow de la Asociación Estadounidense de Psicología y de la Asociación de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales, fellow clínico fundador de la Asociación Estadounidense de Ansiedad y Depresión, y Diplomate y fellow de la Academia de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales.

El Dr. Rego cuenta con más de 50 publicaciones y más de 250 presentaciones profesionales, entre ellos, dos libros para profesionales (Treatment Plans and Interventions for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder y Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia). También es coautor de dos libros de autoayuda (The 10-Step Depression Relief Workbook y The CBT Workbook for Mental Health) que se han traducido al alemán, polaco, ruso, chino simplificado y holandés. Desde 2004, el Dr. Rego colabora con los medios de comunicación y ha aparecido en ellos más de 450 veces. Algunos de sus intereses especializados son el uso de las redes sociales para educar al público sobre la salud mental y la identificación, implementación y evaluación de tecnologías emergentes para mejorar los resultados del tratamiento.

El Dr. Rego es miembro de la junta directiva de la Academia de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales. Anteriormente, formó parte de las juntas directivas de la Asociación de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales y de la Asociación Estadounidense de Ansiedad y Depresión. Fue miembro fundador de la Asociación de Terapia Cognitivo Conductual de la Ciudad de Nueva York y presidente fundador del Grupo de Interés Especial en Terapia Cognitiva de la Asociación de Terapias Cognitivas y Conductuales. Figura en las listas Who's Who in America y Who's Who in Medicine Academia, y ha recibido múltiples distinciones, entre ellas, el Premio al Psicólogo Destacado al Inicio de su Carrera otorgado por la Asociación Psicológica del Estado de Nueva York (2008), el Premio Peterson de la Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology de Rutgers University (2015) y el Premio Jerilyn Ross al Defensor Clínico de la Asociación Estadounidense de Ansiedad y Depresión (2018). En 2021, fue seleccionado para participar en el Programa de Liderazgo Médico de la Academia Montefiore de Liderazgo Médico y, en 2023, en el Programa de Capacitación en Biodiseño de Innovación de Montefiore Einstein. En 2025, recibió el Premio a la Trayectoria en Liderazgo Educativo del Departamento de Psiquiatría y Ciencias del Comportamiento.

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 Einstein 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 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 was 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 the New York State Psychiatric Institute (2004–2007), where she focused her research efforts on the 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, 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 disseminating evidence-based interventions for child and adolescent disorders and evaluating 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 evidence-based interventions for youth, she developed and now teaches curricula emphasizing health disparities, health advocacy and social justice.

Dr. Pimentel is a past President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. She is also 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.

Amanda Zayde, PsyD, is an Attending Psychologist, Associate Director of Psychology Training and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Montefiore Einstein 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. Her research has been funded by the FAR Fund, the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the American Psychological Foundation. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences. She is also a frequent media guest expert, providing 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.

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

Dr. Held joined Montefiore Einstein in 2023. Previously, she had worked at Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS), a network of community mental health clinics in Westchester, and at the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center at the VA Medical Center in East Orange, New Jersey. Through all of her roles, Dr. Held has maintained a commitment to working with marginalized and underserved communities, adapting and delivering evidence-based treatments. Dr. Held specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and works with adults with anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and borderline personality disorder. She is also passionate about integrating behavioral medicine treatment into mental health settings. She has expertise in CBT for insomnia, CBT for chronic pain, pain reprocessing therapy (PRT), and CBT for tinnitus.

Dr. Held is deeply committed to teaching and supervision. She has extensive experience in clinical supervision of psychology interns, externs, postdoctoral fellows, psychiatry residents, and social workers. She has also taught didactics on many topics related to CBT, DBT, trauma and behavioral medicine. In her role as director of THRIVE, Montefiore's trauma program, Dr. Held is committed to teaching about and disseminating trauma-informed care throughout the medical center, and to increasing access to evidence-based trauma treatments. She also collaborates with Montefiore's Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery to disseminate CBT for bothersome tinnitus to patients at Montefiore.

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

Dr. Freilich received his PsyD from Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Clinical School of Psychology and completed his internship and postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Montefiore Einstein/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 Einstein 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 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.