Miriam Voran, Ph.D – Availability: YES

Office – 300 Elm St., Apt 1, Montpelier VT  05602
Phone: 802-223-2134
Email – [email protected]
Website: miriamvoran.com

Hours – Mon, Wed, Thurs, 8 am – 6 pm

Payment with cash or check; out of network for all insurances

Types of therapy offered & philosophy Psychotherapy, at its best, is about becoming comfortable with who you are and—in the process–becoming more yourself. Gradually, you relinquish old coping strategies, strategies that once helped you keep your balance but now just waste your energy. As you slowly sweep this defensive debris away, you uncover the rich tapestry of your inner life, gaining a self-knowledge that can invigorate your relationships and your own chosen work.

Psychotherapy, at its best, is about rediscovering the pitfalls on your developmental journey, the snares in which you’ve been entangled and trapped. These snares are the defenses that keep you on familiar ground—for example, habits of procrastination, compulsive busyness, or disappointing relationships. When these snares reappear in psychotherapy, as they inevitably will, we see firsthand your defenses, help you disentangle yourself, and thereby free your energy for something new. Because I work with families, couples, and individuals of all ages, from infants to seniors, my knowledge of these snares is constantly refreshed, their seductive dangers always before me. My diverse practice keeps me in touch with the universal human struggles to be oneself, a struggle first confronted in infancy, and met again and again throughout our lives. I especially value my work with little children, who daily refresh my memory of our earliest struggles, our vulnerability, and the courage we must call upon to learn who we are.

See my website (miriamvoran.com) for details about my approach to individual adults, to parents and children, to families, and to autism. At my website, I also discuss the scientific evidence for psychoanalytic treatments; contrary to popular belief, these offer much more than shorter-term cognitive-behavioral treatments.

Background I hadn’t intended to be an analytic therapist. Although as a teenager I’d become curious about the human mind, and later, in 1995, earned my Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia, I first focused on attachment theory and research, not psychoanalysis. I completed an internship and two year-long post-doctoral fellowships through Dartmouth Medical School, working at community mental health clinics, the Center for Genetics and Child Development, and the neonatal intensive care nursery. To guide this clinical work, I still turned to attachment theory. Then, an unexpected event upset my life plans, and I sought psychoanalysis. Eighteen years have passed, during which I’ve learned psychoanalysis through my ongoing personal analysis, reading, and weekly consultation. As I came to understand myself, I knew that my life’s work was to share this incomparable journey with others.

In the meantime, I began my professional work at West Central Behavioral Health, where I treated children and families and started the agency’s early childhood mental health program. In 2000, I began a private practice in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children, families, and adults. I’ve provided consultation for childcare teachers, early interventionists, and home visitors. Currently, I am an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Dartmouth Medical School and teach psychology interns about early emotional development. I am a Fellow of Zero to Three and a member of the World Association of Infant Mental Health, the International Pre-Autistic Network, a