Faculty with Private Practices
The following psychiatrists and psychologists have private practices through their offices at Beth Israel. They are in-network providers for a few select private insurance companies. Many other families can also seek reimbursement if their insurance plans include out-of-network benefits. Please call them directly to schedule an appointment and to inquire about insurance coverage.

Manuella P. Zisu, MD
Physician-in-charge
(212) 420-2488
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine;
Program Director - SLR/ BI Child and adolescent psychiatry Fellowship at BIMC

Board certification- double board certified
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Dr. Zisu is a member of the Bipolar family center consulting for adolescents with bipolar disorders and their families who are involved in the program. She is the SLR/BI Program Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at BIMC. She provides teaching and supervision for psychiatry residents and child and adolescent psychiatry fellows, and coordinates the child fellowship at the BIMC site. She maintains a private practice providing psychopharmacology and psychotherapy for adults, children and adolescents.

Ruben Portnoy, MD
Attending in Psychiatrist
(212) 420-4311
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Assistant Attending - SLR/ BI Child and adolescent psychiatry Fellowship at BIMC
Board certification- double board certifiedAmerican Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Dr. Portnoy provides teaching and supervision for psychiatry residents and child and adolescent psychiatry fellows. He attends the Psychodynamic Psychotherapeutic Post Graduate Program at NYU Psychoanalytical Institute. He graduated from Medical school in Argentina, Completed his specialty at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and is fluent in Spanish and English.
 He maintains a private practice providing psychopharmacology and psychotherapy for adults, children and adolescents.

Jacob J. Ham, PhD Program Director
BI-SLR program for Healing Emotions and Achieving Resilience to Traumatic Stress (BI-SLR HEARTS)
(212) 420-4114
Dr. Ham is the Director of the new BI-SLR HEARTS Program (http://wehealny.org/services/BI_ChildPsychiatry/TSP.html). In this role, he leads the development of this new program and oversees all program activities. He also provides direct clinical supervision for trainees in trauma-informed interventions and didactic seminars on traumatic stress. He is an active member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. He is a member of the NCTSN National Steering Committee and serves on the Communication Platform and Sustainability subcommittees. He leads all collaborations with other NCTSN members. He is also a member of the following workgroups: Complex Trauma, Zero to Three, and Implementation Interest Group.
In his faculty practice, Dr. Ham specializes in individual and family psychotherapy using attachment theory and relational approaches and cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior disorders and traumatic stress. He also specializes in psychological testing and psycho-educational evaluations.
Dr. Ham received his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He completed his pre-doctoral internship in Child/Adult psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He completed a two-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School in physiologic markers of maternal empathy during mother-infant interaction. This research was funded by the NIMH, the Livingston Award through Harvard Medical School, and the Sackler Scholarship in Psychobiology at Harvard University. During this time, he also trained in the Developmental Medicine Center at Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School, providing psychological evaluations for school age children and treatment in the Parent Infant Mental Health Clinic.

Alba Cabral, PhD
Supervising Psychologist
Co-coordinator, Child and Family Psychology Externship Program
(212) 420-2981

Dr. Cabral is a Supervising Psychologist and Co-coordinator of the Child, Adolescent and Family Multicultural Externship Program at Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC), Psychiatric Outpatient Services.  She is also the Cultural Competence Advisor BI-SLR HEARTS Program: Healing Emotions and Achieving Resilience to Traumatic Stress.

Dr. Cabral has a private practice which specializes in providing individual, family, group psychotherapies, parenting skills training and psychological evaluations to children, adolescents, adults and their families. Dr. Cabral has widespread experience conducting psychotherapy services in both English and Spanish. She has been working extensively with children, adolescents, adults and families presenting with a wide range of internalizing and externalizing disorders and with extensive histories of trauma.

Dr. Alba Cabral obtained her Doctorate degree in clinical psychology
from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York. Upon
completion of her degree, she worked as a Staff Psychologist at The
Child and Family Institute at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center (SLRHC),
where she also completed her clinical internship. While at St. Luke's- Roosevelt Hospital Dr. Cabral worked intensively at the Parent-Infant Center a preventive program targeted at providing services to high-risk pregnant women and caretakers with children ages 0-3.

Dawn Baird, Ph.D., Supervising Psychologist
Co-Coordinator, Child and Family Psychology Externship Program
(212) 420-4428

Dr. Baird is a Supervising Psychologist offering supervision for child psychological testing, individual therapy, parenting, family therapy and group therapy. Dr. Baird's therapeutic approach is collaborative and dynamic in origin; she includes cognitive-behavioral techniques as indicated. She specializes in psychological testing including comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations for children and young adults.  She teaches a Mindfulness seminar, and is an Adjunct Professor at the New School for Social Research where she teaches Child Psychological Testing. Dr. Baird has provided supervision in both clinical and research settings, and completed a two year fellowship focused on women's health and trauma prior to opening a private practice seven years ago. She maintains a private practice offering therapy and psychological testing in Manhattan and Westchester.

Faculty in Family Therapy and Social Work
Chaya Mermerstein, LCSW
Family Therapy Instructor
(212) 420-4442

Part-Time Clinical Staff
Carole Sands, PhD
Staff Psychologist, part-time
(212) 420-2987

Carole Sands has worked part time in Beth Israel’s child and adolescent outpatient psychiatry department since 1984 after completing her internship at Beth Israel. She obtained her PhD from Columbia University (Teachers College). While at Teachers College she did a year of child externship at Roosevelt Hospital’s outpatient department. Previously, she had obtained a masters degree in art therapy. With this degree she worked at a residential treatment facility and then at an outpatient mental health facility, in the child and adolescent department, doing individual therapy. During this time she worked in a therapeutic nursery.

Dr. Sandstraining at Hahnemann Medical College (now Drexel University) included training for 6 months in London at Anna Freud’s Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic, when Anna Freud was still working at the clinic. Dr. Sand’s first work at Beth Israel was with Stanley Turecki, MD, who was head of the Difficult Child Program which focused on doing parent guidance with parents who had young children who were difficult to raise because of their temperament. She did a year of post-internship in psychoanalysis at the Postgraduate Center. Some of the many courses she has taken over the years focus on trauma, family therapy, ADHD, EMDR and cognitive-behavior therapy, including a course for trauma and for depression. Having trained in many different models of therapy, Dr. Sands tries to fit the appropriate treatment for each particular case. She has been in private practice since 1988, where she sees children, adolescents and adults. Her office is located on the upper west side.

Esther Goldman, LCSW
Staff Clinical Social Worker, part-time
(212) 420-4487

Esther Goldman is a Senior Social Worker in Child and Family Behavioral Health Service since 1991. She previously worked in a variety of settings at Beth Israel Medical Center, including the inpatient psychiatric service and Psychiatric Day Treatment Program. Ms. Goldman provides individual, family and group psychotherapy and clinical supervision. She has extensive training in a variety of therapy techniques and uses an individualized approach, tailoring the therapy to the client.

Ms. Goldman received her undergraduate degree at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and her Masters Degree in Social Work from Yeshiva University, Wurzweiler School of Social Work. She also completed training at the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy. As an active member in the Beth Israel Psychotherapy Research Program, Ms. Goldman participated in the supportive therapy and cognitive behavior research seminars.

She has a particular interest in working with families and in improving parenting skills. She introduced multiple family groups to the Dept. of Psychiatry when she worked at the Day Treatment Program and she leads parenting groups for mothers and caretakers of children at this time. Ms. Goldman continues to participate in courses and seminars on a variety of topics such as ADHD, couple and family therapy, parent training, cognitive behavior therapy including treatment of trauma, depression, and disruptive disorders. Ms. Goldman is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, Academy of Certified Social Workers, and is a Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work. When not working at Beth Israel, she is an active member of her NJ community and conducts parent training.

Beth Israel Medical Center
Manhattan: First Avenue at 16th Street, New York, NY 10003
10 Union Square East, New York, NY 10003
Brooklyn: 3201 Kings Highway, Brooklyn, NY 11234