“What people see on the surface is rarely the whole story.”
Hi, I’m Sury.
SURY KLEIN • LMSW (NY) • LSW (NJ) • CASAC-T
I’m probably going to be more interested in why something makes sense than in telling you to stop doing it.
I work with adults dealing with complex trauma, sexual trauma, addiction, and relationship patterns that can leave you wondering, “Why do I keep doing this when I know better?”
A lot of my work starts there. Not with judgment. Not with trying to make the reaction disappear. With getting curious about what it learned to do for you in the first place.
In-person in New Jersey • Telehealth in New York
You don’t have to show up already knowing how to talk about it.
You can tell me you don’t know. You can change your mind. You can laugh about something that isn’t particularly funny. You can spend twenty minutes explaining why something shouldn’t bother you before admitting that it does.
I’m not sitting across from you trying to figure out what’s wrong with you. I’m listening for what makes sense.
Sometimes that means slowing something down and getting curious about a reaction. Sometimes it means talking very practically about what happened this week. Sometimes we notice that one part of you desperately wants something to change while another part has very good reasons for keeping things exactly as they are.
You don’t have to perform therapy well here.
The things I work with most.
You don’t need to know which category you fit into. These experiences often overlap, and we can start with whatever is affecting you now.
Complex Trauma & CPTSD
When the past isn’t exactly “in the past.” Shutting down, staying on guard, emotional disconnection, shame, difficulty trusting, or reactions that feel much bigger than the moment.
Sexual Trauma
A private, nonjudgmental place to work with what happened and what may still be affected now, including shame, numbness, intimacy, trust, boundaries, and your relationship with your body.
Addiction & Compulsive Coping
Instead of beginning with “How do we make you stop?”, I’m interested in “What has this been doing for you?” We can work with the behavior without losing sight of what sits underneath it.
Attachment & Relationships
For wanting closeness and then pulling away, difficulty trusting, shutting down during conflict, people pleasing, emotional distance, or patterns you keep finding yourself back in.
Therapy doesn’t require you to become a different person for an hour.
You don’t have to tell me everything.
We can work with what’s here without forcing a story you’re not ready to tell.
You don’t have to agree with me.
Therapy should have room for you to say, “No, that’s not it.”
You don’t have to stop coping before we understand the coping.
Even patterns that are hurting you may have started for a reason.
You don’t have to make progress on my timeline.
I may challenge you. That’s different from pushing you.
I spent more than a decade as a designer.
That might seem unrelated to therapy, but I don’t think it is.
Design taught me to pay attention to what isn’t immediately obvious. Why something feels off even when you can’t quite explain why. How individual pieces relate to a larger whole. How changing one small thing can shift everything around it.
I’ve always been interested in what sits underneath the surface. These days, instead of working with layouts and visual systems, I spend much more of my time thinking about people, relationships, protective patterns, and the stories underneath what we see.
Grounded clinically. Human in the room.
My training gives us a framework. It doesn’t replace curiosity about you as an individual.
Licensure & Credentials
- Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW), New York
- Licensed Social Worker (LSW), New Jersey
- CASAC-T
- Master of Social Work
My Work Draws From
- Internal Family Systems (IFS)
- Attachment-Based Work
- Trauma-Informed Care
- Motivational Interviewing
- CBT & DBT-Informed Skills
Areas of Focus
- Complex Trauma & CPTSD
- Sexual Trauma
- Addiction & Compulsive Coping
- Attachment & Relationship Patterns
- Shame & Emotional Disconnection
You want someone who will take you seriously without making everything heavy.
- You function pretty well on the outside while knowing there’s much more happening underneath.
- You understand your patterns intellectually and still find yourself doing them.
- There are things you’re embarrassed, ashamed, or nervous to tell a therapist.
- You want to understand yourself, not just collect more coping skills.
- You don’t have a neat explanation for why you’re struggling at all.
You don’t need to figure out whether your story is “bad enough” before reaching out. We can start with what is happening now.