Psychologist. License # NYS 023878
NYS 023878
Telehealth Practice
315-691-0900
spinkpsychology.com
Life Coaching Virtually: Yes. Only within NYS

I am a NYS licensed psychologist (023878) and have dedicated my career to understanding and helping people cope with chronic pain and chronic illness. I continue to seek out any new information in research and seminars so that I can offer the latest to help my patients cope. In addition to my work with patients, I provide education and consultation to several hospitals and colleges throughout Upstate New York on psychological and social aspects of pain. Through this, I provide pain education to psychologists and medical providers. I thoroughly enjoy helping both patients and providers learn more about pain and pain psychology.

I chose to focus exclusively on supporting patients with chronic pain and illness for a few reasons. First, the difficulties, concerns, and questions of these patients are unique. In order to best support patients, such as yourself, I believe you need to focus your efforts on staying up to date on several lines of research including psychology, pain medicine, neuroscience, physical therapy, and the list goes on. There are several mental health providers in New York that advertise helping people with chronic pain along with other conditions (e.g., anxiety, depression, grief, etc.), and I respect them for attempting to help a wide range of patients! Personally, though, I would not be able to answer many questions, and apply the best research-based care due to the amount of information you need to stay up-to-date on. Second, I find great meaning and enjoyment helping people who have struggled with chronic pain and illness get their life back. Lastly, I enjoy working with other providers from different specialties to find the best treatment for you. That is the reason why I get releases for several of your providers during the first appointment, so that we can collaborate to optimize your treatment.

While at Syracuse, I focused my education and research on chronic illness. Although I sought a wide variety of experiences, my ultimate goal was to help individuals with chronic illness. Eventually, I found my passion with helping people with physical symptoms, like chronic pain. I continued to pursue this interest into my APA accredited internship at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Rochester Regional Health (RRH). While on internship I was able to provide education, training, and treatment to patients with chronic pain. Eventually, I stayed in Rochester, NY for my post-doc internship where I continued to focus more on evaluating and treatment of patients with pain diagnosis in order to help them cope and support their pain providers. Once licensed, I accepted a position at Rochester Regional Health in which I provided education and training to psychology interns and medical providers. More importantly, I established a psychological referral service for patients in pain. I have focused on furthering my education and clinical skills in assessment and treatment to help people cope with their pain.

I am part of the American Psychological Association and Division 38 - Health Psychology. I am also a member of the Pain Special Interest Group for the Association of Contextual and Behavioral Science, and a member of the International Association for the Study of Pain. I currently maintain a membership to the American Association for Pain Psychology, Rome Foundation GastroPsych, and The Global Alliance of Partners for Pain Advocacy. Through all of these organizations, among others, I continue to expand my knowledge on pain and living with chronic pain to inform my psychological practice. I use the information I gain from these organizations, as well as other areas like neuroscience, to work with you in tailoring and personalizing your treatment to meet your needs and goals.