Dr. Efrat Fridman, LCSW, DSW

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Imago Relationship Therapist specializing in couples therapy, attachment injuries, and relational trauma.

My work is grounded in Imago Relationship Therapy and informed by attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, and contemporary object relations perspectives.I am deeply interested in how early relational experiences shape the unconscious templates we carry into adult partnership. I view conflict not as evidence of incompatibility, but as an invitation to growth , a signal that unresolved developmental needs are seeking integration within the relationship.

In my work with couples, I help partners identify the adaptations and protective strategies that once ensured emotional survival but now generate distance and polarization. Through a structured dialogical process, I guide couples from reactivity toward differentiation, empathy, and secure attachment. My aim is not simply to reduce conflict, but to help partners transform conflict into connection.

I have particular expertise in high-conflict dynamics, pursuer–withdrawer cycles, infidelity and betrayal trauma, and the process of recommitment following relational rupture. I believe that recommitment is not a passive decision but an active stance — a disciplined choice to protect and prioritize the relationship as a shared psychological home.

In addition to my private practice, I serve as an Adjunct Professor at the NYU Silver School of Social Work, where I teach and supervise graduate-level clinicians in training. I also facilitate the “Getting the Love You Want” workshop, and the ” Keeping the Love You Find ” workshop offering an immersive and carefully structured experiential model for relational transformation.

I approach my work with both clinical rigor and relational presence. I strive to create a therapeutic frame that is steady, balanced, and emotionally attuned , a space where partners feel safe enough to confront painful truths and supported enough to move toward meaningful repair.