Welcome to Indigo Marriage and Family Therapy.  We are a community of practitioners that specialize in individual and couples therapy in the heart of Manhattan.  We aim to provide high quality counseling to a community as diverse as NYC itself.  

We welcome you to our site and hope you find the right therapist, for you, with us.

Elena Hull Cournot, Clinical Director   LMFT  #00341       

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"As within so without", the state of our inner world is the greatest influence on our outer world.

I hold therapy as a place where my clients can create a spacious and rich dialogue with their inner world to heal, shape and inspire their lives.  Our suffering is worthy of our time, our curiosity and our compassionate attention.  It is often the doorway to deeper meaning and developing more capacity to hold the richness of life. 

Early relational trauma, loss, and unexpected tragedy are all human experiences that can disconnect us from our native self and fracture our sense of safety in the world and in our personal relationships.  When we are disconnected from our selves it can manifest, for example, as anxiety, fear, depression, anger, grief, stress, rumination or isolation. It is natural to need support to reconnect.  

I do a lot of work with adults turning to face unmet childhood trauma.  A trusted therapeutic relationship can be the space to risk facing childhood wounds, move beyond limiting unconscious patterns and tend the painful symptoms trauma leaves behind.  In-depth psychotherapy offers the consistency, containment, and time for the process of personal transformation to unfold.  Therapy can reunite us with our latent possibilities, our intuitive wisdom, and all that is essential to us.  

I love working with both individuals and couples.  I find working with couples incredibly rewarding as the duality and complementary nature of a couple can be a great teacher for the individuals within it.  The interior life of a couple is often private and therefore isolated from the support it often needs.  Couples rarely have the experience of someone entering their shared world and asking them questions that can deepen the understanding and intimacy between them.

As a Marriage and Family Therapist, I look at my client’s history and family of origin to understand their present concerns. As a Creative Arts Therapist I often weave meaningful interventions into the talk therapy to ignite and deepen the work.

Amy Benedict, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

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My work has always been guided by a belief in our innate capacity to learn, to heal, and to transform provided we are met with empathy and compassion in the fullness of who we are — body, mind and spirit.

There are times when we need a place of refuge where we can address the depth and complexity of that which is causing us suffering or limiting our experience of life and relationships. I am honored to welcome individuals and couples into just such a safe and accepting space, where both inner and relational awareness can develop and flourish. 

Together we explore personal, cultural and archetypal narratives to reveal clients deepest values and highest aspirations. I incorporate experiential techniques that encourage greater self-expression, mindfulness and the integration of preferred ways of being. Clients discover and connect with strengths and vital parts of themselves, opening up new possibilities for healing, intimacy and meaning in life. 

I hold masters degrees in Education (Antioch University) and in Marriage and Family Therapy (Mercy College). Also a certified Celebrant, I collaborate with diverse multicultural and inter-spiritual clients to prepare for and honor marriages and other life cycle events. This symbolic artistic work combines with my rich background in holistic education to inspire my therapy with clients navigating all developmental stages and thresholds:  

emergent adulthood, parenthood and midlife, as well as those facing changes in relationship status through loss, separation and divorce.

*Amy is currently working out of New Paltz, NY