Root & Rise Clinical Specialists

Your brain can make a possibility feel like a fact. But feeling convincing doesn’t make it evidence.

That distinction can be incredibly difficult to recognize when anxiety is loud.

A physical sensation appears. Your nervous system reacts. Your mind starts searching for an explanation:
What if something is wrong?
What if I missed something?
What if the doctor missed something?
What if I stop worrying and something happens?

Soon, the possibility itself can begin to feel like evidence, and checking, researching, monitoring your body, seeking reassurance, or mentally reviewing the situation may only lead to the next question.

Raven Maldonado, LMHC, offers Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) for OCD and obsessional doubt. I-CBT helps clients examine how doubt becomes believable and learn to distinguish imagined possibilities from information grounded in the here and now.

This approach may be particularly relevant for clients whose OCD becomes wrapped up in health or medical fears, body sensations, persistent “what if?” thinking, checking, reassurance-seeking, or other recurring doubt loops.

And Raven brings much more than one modality to the therapy room. She works extensively with adolescents, young adults, and families, understands complex family dynamics, and provides culturally responsive therapy in English and Spanish.

🌿 Raven is currently accepting new clients in New York via telehealth.

If anxiety keeps turning “What if?” into “This must mean something,” visit the link in our bio to learn more about Raven and I-CBT or request a consultation with Root & Rise Clinical Specialists.

Therapy Redefined. Mental Wealth-Care™.

But what if…?
What if the doctor missed something?
What if this sensation means something serious?
What if I overlooked an important sign?
What if I stop worrying about it, and that’s when something happens?

For some people, anxiety doesn’t end when they get an answer. The answer simply creates another question.

That persistent cycle of doubt can show up around health and medical fears, body sensations, contamination, responsibility, mistakes, safety, or other situations where the mind becomes fixated on achieving certainty.

Raven Maldonado, LMHC, offers Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) for clients struggling with OCD and obsessional doubt.

I-CBT looks closely at how a feared possibility became believable in the first place, particularly when anxiety, imagination, and “what if?” thinking begin carrying more weight than what is actually happening in the here and now.

For someone caught in a health-related loop, that might look like:

A physical sensation → fear → “What if something is wrong?” → increased monitoring → more sensations → more doubt → reassurance or checking → another “what if?”

The sensation and anxiety can be very real. That doesn’t automatically make the feared conclusion evidence.

Raven brings more than an OCD specialty to this work. She is a bilingual English/Spanish therapist with extensive experience supporting adolescents, young adults and families, including complex family dynamics and culturally responsive care.

🌿 Raven is currently accepting new clients in New York via telehealth.

If you or your teen feels trapped in repetitive “but what if?” thinking, medical fears, checking, reassurance-seeking, or obsessional doubt, visit the link in our bio to learn more about Raven and request a consultation with Root & Rise Clinical Specialists.
Therapy Redefined. Mental Wealth-Care™.

Meet April Lee, PMHNP-BC — our psychiatric partner helping Root & Rise clients bridge the gap between therapy and medication management when both are part of the treatment picture. 🌿

Mental health care doesn’t always fit neatly into separate boxes. Sometimes therapy is the right intervention. Sometimes medication can be an important part of treatment. Sometimes the most effective care happens when your providers can communicate and collaborate with one another.

April provides psychiatric evaluations and medication management, working with clients to better understand their symptoms, treatment needs, and medication options while taking a thoughtful, individualized approach to psychiatric care.
Through our collaboration with April and Mindful Med, Root & Rise clients can have access to psychiatric support that complements the work they're already doing in therapy. When appropriate and with client consent, providers can collaborate rather than leaving clients to coordinate every piece of their care themselves.

That matters to us.

Because building an ecosystem of mental health care isn't about adding more appointments, it's about making sure the pieces of treatment fit together.

🌿 April is currently accepting new clients.
📍 New York & Florida
💻 Telehealth available
🧠 Psychiatric evaluations
💊 Medication management
🤝 Collaborative care with your therapist

Curious whether psychiatric support could complement your therapy? Visit the link in our bio or contact Root & Rise to learn more.
Root & Rise Clinical Specialists

Therapy Redefined. Mental Wealth-Care™.

You can understand the pattern and still feel stuck in it.

“I know why I do this.”
“I know where it comes from.”
“I’ve talked about it in therapy.”
“I can practically predict myself at this point.”

And yet…the same emotional reactions, relationship patterns, or internal conflicts keep showing up.
Insight matters. But sometimes understanding something intellectually isn’t the end of the work.
That’s part of what Julie Stark, LCSW, explores through The Stark Contrast™, her creative, relational, and individualized approach to therapy.

Julie works especially well with people who are insightful, expressive, creative, or deeply self-aware but may be looking for a different way to access what they’re experiencing. Rather than relying on conversation alone, the work can make room for imagery, metaphor, music, photography, creativity, and other forms of expression when they offer another way of understanding what’s happening beneath the surface.

Because knowing why a pattern exists and experiencing something differently aren't always the same thing.

Sometimes the next step isn't analyzing yourself harder.

It’s exploring yourself differently.

📷 And fittingly, the photography throughout this series is Julie’s own original work, including this image. Her creative perspective isn't simply part of The Stark Contrast™ branding. It's part of who she is and the lens she brings to her work with clients.

🌿 Julie is currently accepting new clients in New York and Florida.

Telehealth is available in both states, with in-person options through Root & Rise Clinical Specialists.
If you’re highly self-aware but still find yourself thinking, “I understand it…so why am I still doing it?” Julie may offer the kind of therapeutic experience you’ve been looking for.

Visit the link in our bio to learn more about Julie Stark, LCSW, and The Stark Contrast™, or request a consultation.

Therapy Redefined. Mental Wealth-Care™.

Maybe you don’t need more of the same. Maybe you need a different way into the work.

If you've tried therapy before but still felt like something wasn't quite clicking, that doesn't necessarily mean therapy isn't for you.

Sometimes the relationship, approach, and way you’re invited to explore yourself make all the difference.

Julie Stark, LCSW, Co-Founder and Co-Clinical Director of Root & Rise Clinical Specialists, created The Stark Contrast™ for people who may connect with therapy differently, especially creatives, deep thinkers, highly expressive people, and those who have spent much of their lives feeling misunderstood.

Julie’s work is creative, relational, and individualized. Rather than expecting every client to process emotions in the same way, she creates room for conversation, imagery, metaphor, music, photography, creativity, and expression to become part of the therapeutic process when they’re meaningful to the person sitting across from her.
Because therapy doesn't have to look the same for everyone.

And neither does healing.

📷 Throughout this campaign, we've been sharing Julie's own original photography, another glimpse into the creative perspective she brings to her work and the way she notices the world around her.
Julie is currently accepting new clients.

🌿 New York + Florida
💻 Telehealth available in both states
📍 In-person options available through Root & Rise
🎨 Individual therapy through The Stark Contrast™

If you've been looking for a therapist who understands how you think, feel, create, and experience the world, we'd love to introduce you to Julie.

Visit the link in our bio to learn more about Julie Stark, LCSW, and The Stark Contrast™, or contact Root & Rise to see if she may be a good fit for what you're looking for.

You don't need more of the same. You may just need something that feels more like you.

Therapy Redefined. Mental Wealth-Care™.

For people who have spent much of their lives feeling misunderstood.

Maybe you experience things deeply. You notice details other people miss. Your thoughts don't always move from Point A to Point B. You may be creative, intuitive, sensitive, expressive, or have an inner world that has never been easy to put into words.

And maybe traditional therapy has sometimes left you feeling like you need to translate yourself before someone can understand you.

With Julie Stark, LCSW, you don't have to make yourself easier to understand.

Through her signature approach, The Stark Contrast™, Julie creates a more creative, relational, and individualized therapy experience for people who may connect differently with their emotions and the world around them.

That can mean exploring experiences through conversation, but it can also mean making room for metaphor, imagery, music, photography, creativity, and other forms of expression when they help you access something words alone haven't.

Julie is a creative herself, and the photography featured throughout this series is her original work.

📷 That perspective is part of what she brings into the therapy room: curiosity, observation, creativity, and an ability to look at something from more than one angle.

The goal isn't to make you fit more neatly into someone else's definition of how you're supposed to think, feel, or communicate.

It's to create a therapeutic relationship where there's room to explore who you actually are.

🌿 Julie is currently accepting new clients in both New York and Florida, with telehealth available in both states and in-person options through Root & Rise.

If you've been looking for a therapist who feels a little less conventional, or you've tried therapy before and wished there were another way into the work, Julie may be someone worth getting to know.
Visit the link in our bio to learn more about Julie Stark, LCSW, The Stark Contrast™, or to request a consultation.

Therapy Redefined. Mental Wealth-Care™.

When words aren’t enough, therapy doesn’t have to stop there. 📷

For some people, emotions don’t arrive in neat sentences. You may know something is happening internally but struggle to explain it, or find that traditional talk therapy doesn’t always reach the parts of your experience that feel most important.
Julie Stark, LCSW, understands this as both a therapist and a creative herself.

Through The Stark Contrast™, Julie offers a creative, relational, and individualized approach to therapy that gives clients more than one way to explore their inner world. Creativity, imagery, metaphor, music, photography, and other forms of expression can become additional ways into the conversation when words alone don’t quite capture it.

And the photograph featured in this post? Julie took it herself. Her creative perspective isn’t something we manufactured for a therapy brand; it’s part of who she is and the lens she brings to her clinical work.

The Stark Contrast™ may especially resonate with creatives, artists, musicians, writers, photographers, deep thinkers, highly sensitive people, and anyone who has felt misunderstood or constrained by more traditional approaches to therapy.

You don't have to be an artist. You don't have to create anything “good.” And you don't have to know exactly how to explain what you're feeling before you walk through the door.

You just need a place where there can be more than one way to understand yourself.

🌿 Julie is currently accepting new clients in New York and Florida. In-person and telehealth options are available depending on location.

Interested in working with Julie? Visit the link in our bio to learn more about The Stark Contrast™ or connect with Root & Rise Clinical Specialists to get started.

Different people need different ways into the work.
Therapy Redefined. Mental Wealth-Care™.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know our team. 🌿

Over the past several posts, we’ve introduced you to the clinicians behind Root & Rise Clinical Specialists- not just their credentials, but the specialties, approaches, and perspectives they bring to the therapy room.

And we wanted you to meet them individually for a reason.

The right therapist matters.

Therapy is deeply personal. The clinician who is perfect for one person may not be the right fit for another. That’s why Root & Rise was intentionally built around a team with different specialties, personalities, therapeutic styles, and areas of expertise, all held to one shared standard of care.
Some of our clinicians are direct. Some are deeply relational. Some incorporate creativity. Some specialize in trauma processing, couples, adolescents and families, neurodivergence, psychodynamic work, or focused approaches like EMDR and RTM.

Different doesn’t mean disconnected. It means we have options.

And you don’t have to know which modality you need or choose a therapist based on a headshot and a few sentences online. Our clinical matching process considers what you’re experiencing, what you want from therapy, and the kind of clinician you’re most likely to connect with.

Because finding your therapist shouldn’t feel like throwing a dart at a directory.

🌿 Our team is currently welcoming new clients.
📍 In-person options in Port Jefferson, NY + Boca Raton, FL
💻 Telehealth options across NY, FL, CT + MA
💳 Private pay + out-of-network reimbursement support

If you’ve been following along and someone on our team stood out to you, or you have absolutely no idea who you need, start with us. We’ll help you figure out the rest.

Visit the link in our bio to meet the full team and request an appointment.

Thank you for getting to know the people behind Root & Rise. We’re here when you’re ready. 🤎

Therapy Redefined. Mental Wealth-Care™.

What if you don’t think in straight lines?
Your therapy doesn’t have to either. 🎨📷

For some people, sitting in a therapy room and trying to explain everything with words doesn’t always feel natural, especially when you experience the world creatively, emotionally, visually, or a little differently than the people around you.

That’s where Julie Stark, LCSW, and The Stark Contrast™ come in.

Julie brings her own identity as a creative into her work as a therapist, creating space for clients to explore emotions, relationships, identity, patterns, and life transitions in ways that can extend beyond traditional conversation.

Creativity. Metaphor. Imagery. Music. Photography. A different perspective.

You don’t need to be an artist. You don’t need to be “good” at anything creative. And you definitely don’t need to show up with the perfect words.

The Stark Contrast™ is for people looking for a more creative, relational way to engage in therapy, particularly creatives, deep thinkers, and people who have spent much of their lives feeling misunderstood.

And the photography in this post?
That’s Julie’s, too. 📷

Because creativity isn't something she simply talks about with clients. It’s part of how she experiences the world herself.

Julie is currently accepting new clients in both New York and Florida, with telehealth available in both states and in-person options through Root & Rise.
If traditional therapy has never quite felt like you, perhaps it’s time to try a different perspective.

🌿 Visit the link in our bio to learn more about Julie, The Stark Contrast™, or request a consultation with Root & Rise Clinical Specialists.

Therapy Redefined. Mental Wealth-Care™.