Not everybody experiences a watershed or anointed moment in their life when they discover and decide what they want to be, but for Dr. Jennifer Guttman it happened when she was a shy, timid, alienated 13-year-old wallflower during sleep-away camp. While conversing with an inquisitive camp nurse, she was asked, “What do you like doing?” Jennifer replied, “I like listening to people.” The nurse informed her there was a profession for doing just that, and from that day on, the attentive and avid listener made psychology her mission and passion.

Today, that awkward and unassuming teenager has morphed into Dr. Jennifer Guttman, a leading Cognitive Behavioral therapist, clinical psychologist, and motivator, with over 30 years of experience in the field of mental health. She has built thriving practices in New York City and Westport, Connecticut. Since the COVID pandemic 100% of her services to roughly 120 clients are being exclusively offered virtually. Currently, roughly 40% of her clientele suffer from some serious form of mental illness: bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and major depressive disorder. The other 60% come to see her for transient or developmental life issues and most recently she has been treating clients suffering from trauma using EMDR. (She works with children as young as seven years old through individuals in their eighties.) Primarily her clients are 17-55 years old. Her clientele is also a homogeneous cultural and religious mix of people from all walks of life and sexual identities.

About five years ago, while her business was experiencing thriving success, and she had reached an equitable co-parenting arrangement, she was beset by two unforeseen life-altering events. Following a trip abroad she was suddenly diagnosed with multiple pulmonary embolisms that almost killed her. During her recovery, her father died six months later. Devastated by both occurrences, the truth to the proverbial cliché, “life is short” resonated with her. In that moment of awakening, she became defiantly resilient.

Subsequently, she began contemplating a path to realize a dormant dream to motivate and help people become more self-reliant. She fused traditional Cognitive Behavior therapy techniques with some of her own core techniques which were developed and refined over years of personal interaction with her clients. In the fall of 2017, she started specializing in cognitive-behavior therapy featuring the Sustainable Life Satisfaction® brand, (also known as SLS®) which she created.

The Sustainable Life Satisfaction® brand is comprised of six (6) strategies; avoiding assumptions, reducing people-pleasing behaviors, facing fears, making decisions, closing out tasks, and active self-reinforcement. Her techniques are designed to assist individuals in believing in their personal effectiveness in the world.  When coalesced, they can empower people to feel a stronger sense personal control and influence on their ability to achieve positive outcomes to the best of their ability.

SLS® was launched to the public via a six-episode web series, “A Path to Sustainable Life Satisfaction,” which premiered on YouTube in September of 2017. Last year the same series was remastered and broadcast a second time on YouTube. The cumulative views for both have exceeded three-quarters of a million views. In between, she authored, “A Path to Sustainable Life Satisfaction Workbook.” It’s independently distributed by Amazon/Kindle. She recently published  “Beyond Happiness: The 6 Secrets of Lifetime Satisfaction” with Post Hill Press. 

Most recently, the third video series premiered on YouTube. Titled H.E.A.R. the series is comprised of four episodes that discuss, (H) Hope, (E) Empowerment, (A) Adaptation, and (R) Resilience. Dr. Guttman is a regular contributor to PsychologyToday.com and a VIP Contributor to ThriveGlobal.com (VIP Contributor). She has been a contributor to MindBodygreen.com, and served as featured expert in articles published in the Washington Post, NBC News, Health Magazine, Teen Vogue, Well + Good, First, Redbook, Readers Digest, Insider, The Hill, Family Education, Your Teen, EverUp, and TheList. She has also made guest appearances on many popular podcasts and radio shows including:  The Hidden Why, This Is Why You’re Single, Unshakeable Self Confidence,  Food for Fitness, Grit and Grace, Harvesting Happiness, Intuitive Practice, Laurie’s Lemonade Stand, A Positivity Podcast for Women, Anxiety Slayer, Beyond Our Past, QED Personal Resilience (based in the UK), Quora, Good Health & Happiness in Today’s World.

Her range of expertise covers a gamut of topical issues: overall mental health, self-empowerment, self-confidence, the workplace, relationships, divorce, death, anxiety, addiction, teen suicide, and navigating potentially tricky holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day.

While Dr. Guttman has been prolific and is continually advancing her knowledge and areas of expertise to help motivate and support her clientele, her own path to success hasn’t been what one would refer to as smooth sailing. In fact, it has been quite the opposite, mired by a myriad of roadblocks, rejection and sometimes an ominous sense of adversity. She grew up in Scarsdale, NY, the older of two siblings, and her parents, (her father was an attorney and general counsel of Time Inc., and her mother has a doctorate in medieval literature) divorced when she was five years old. She lived with her mother in Scarsdale and visited her father in Manhattan on weekends.

Upon graduation she applied and was accepted at Drew University. Drew is well known for its psychology department and it was the only school to which she applied. Her goal was to earn her Bachelors ‘degree and move straight on to a doctoral program in Clinical Psychology. After graduating from Drew University, she applied to numerous Clinical Psychology doctoral degree programs, but was rejected by all of them. Refusing to fuel her disappointment, she secured a job working for Planned Parenthood and took doctoral level classes at St. John’s University.

During the spring term of that year, she reapplied to Clinical Psychology Doctoral Programs and was accepted to the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Long Island University. It was the only acceptance letter she received. While there, she met the noted professor Dr. Eva Feindler, whom she not only credits as her mentor, but also for steering her in the direction of Cognitive Behavior Therapy.

Dr. Feindler was also the first person to really push her beyond her limits, which proved to be valuable to her future personal and professional growth. Dr. Feindler is a renowned expert in Cognitive Behavior Therapy and specializes in Anger Management in Adolescents. Jennifer also admired Dr. Aaron T. Beck’s work on Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, Albert Bandura’s work on self-efficacy and loved Heinz Kohut, who is considered a theoretician of self-psychology (which involves a person’s self-concept or beliefs about themselves).

Fresh out of graduate school, Jennifer accepted an offer to work for the Mental Health Association of Westchester County and was assigned to work off-site as a clinician at WestHELP-Greenburgh, a family homeless shelter. The shelter was personally endorsed and supported by Andrew Cuomo and was housed on the campus of Westchester Community College. WestHELP was a haven for minority and disenfranchised mothers with children under the age of five. It was a challenging and exciting task, but Jennifer was undeterred. She helped to empower the women and broke the traditional protocol that mandated all appointments needed to be requested in advance. Instead, she offered every woman carte blanche access to meet and talk to her about anything and everything.

While she was working at WestHELP she tried to spread her wings and launch her own start-up practice as a Clinical Psychologist in Tarrytown, NY. She relied mostly on referrals from insurance companies for clients. She was attempting to refine her treatment approach with a different client demographic then the demographic she was seeing at the shelter. Although she was fulfilling her goals, within the year it became clear her business model was not sustainable, so it was shuddered.  In 1995, she married and four years later had her first child, a son. In 2001, she gave birth to her second child, a daughter. That year, she resigned from the Mental Health Association of Westchester County to parent full-time.

However, during her eight-year tenure she had secured a staff, serviced close to 1000 women, and was promoted to several positions including Assistant Executive Director of the Mental Health Association. In that role, she was responsible for all clinical care throughout the agency and supervising over 200 mental health staff including social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists.  After taking a professional hiatus for a year, she opened a private practice in Westport, CT (2002). Within the first six months she was introduced to numerous psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers within the Fairfield community that she grew to admire and respect.

After 15 years in Fairfield County, Jennifer expanded her practice to include a location in Midtown Manhattan. Before the pandemic, she fully embraced and immersed herself into city life in Manhattan, and networking with other professionals.

Dr. Guttman balances an energizing work-life with parenting two young adults. In the little spare time her daily regimen allows, she has been an avid theatergoer and world traveler. She hopes to renew both when the prevailing circumstances will allow for it.