Psychology Internship Training Program Leadership & Faculty

Shireen L. Rizvi, PhD, ABPP is Director of Psychology Training and Director of DBT Services and Research at Montefiore and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at 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.

Dr. Rizvi is Board Certified in Cognitive Behavioral Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology and Dialectical Behavior Therapy by the Linehan Board of Certification. She is a Fellow of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the American Psychological Association (Division 12). Dr. Rizvi is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, was a Founding Member of the New York City Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association, and was a founding board member of the World DBT Association. 

Dr. Rizvi has trained hundreds of students and practitioners from around the world in DBT. She has received the Spotlight on a Mentor Award from the Association of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (2017), the International Society for the Improvement and Teaching of DBT (ISITDBT) Perry Hoffman Service Award (2020), and Professor of the Year for Excellence in Teaching, 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.

Dr. Rego is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 25 years of experience using cognitive behavioral 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 treating anxiety disorders. Dr. Foa is the creator of prolonged exposure (PE) therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as exposure and ritual prevention (ERP) therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Dr. Rego is board certified in cognitive behavioral psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology, certified in cognitive behavior 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 American Psychological Association (Division 12) and 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.

Dr. Rego has more than 50 publications and more than 200 professional presentations, including 2 books for professionals (Treatment Plans and Interventions for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia). He also co-authored 2 self-help books (The 10-Step Depression Relief Workbook and The CBT Workbook for Mental Health) that have now been translated into German, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Dutch. Dr. Rego has been working with the media since 2004 and has been featured in various media outlets more than 450 times. His specialized interests include in the use of social media to educate the public about mental health, and the identification, implementation, and evaluation of emerging technologies to improve treatment outcomes.

Dr. Rego is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies and is a former member of the Board of Directors of both the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. He 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. He is listed in Who's Who in America and 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. In 2021, he was selected to join the Montefiore Physician Leadership Academy's Physician Leadership Program and in 2023 was selected to join the Montefiore Einstein Innovation Biodesign Training Program. In 2025, he received the Lifetime Education Leadership Award from the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.

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.