About Dr. Elfenbein

As a board certified adult psychiatrist, I work with clients to attain mental wellness in all areas of life. My practice integrates traditional psychopharmacology with nutritional testing, stress management, sleep hygiene, mindfulness, breathwork, and other mind-body therapies. I have over three decades of experience treating anxiety, depression, insomnia, trauma, ADHD, and PMDD. I search for underlying physiological causes that may contribute to your symptoms and utilize interventions such as supplements, vitamins, and herbs in addition to standard pharmacological treatments. I offer blood work and genetic testing to personalize treatment to your unique physiology. 

I completed my psychiatric residency training at New York University / Bellevue Medical Center where I was Chief Resident in my final year. Later I completed the Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Columbia University. After decades of traditional psychiatric experience, I completed a two year Fellowship in Integrative and Functional Psychiatry through Psychiatry Redefined. 

  • Few experiences have been as impactful to my personal and professional life as the year I ran mental health programs and oversaw a psychiatric hospital in refugee camps in Thailand. The refugees came to Thailand by boat and land from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Doing this work in Thailand in 1990, I became experienced in treating PTSD and began to see the limitations of our current treatments. Over the course of the year I became familiar with the use of herbs, acupuncture, opium detoxification, and cupping to address physical and mental health issues.

    This life experience set me on a path to seeing and treating the whole person with an understanding of how connected our minds and bodies are. For centuries, ancient Chinese and Indian medicine traditions have seen the gut and the digestive system as central to health and disease. Now Western medicine is beginning to recognize how central our gut is to mental and physical health.

    After years of practicing traditional psychiatry, I began to study holistic healing modalities, first incorporating yoga and meditation into my practice and personal routine. Then I began training in integrative and  functional psychiatry, bringing nutritional testing as well stress management and sleep hygiene into my practice to help my patients alongside modern psychiatric medication. 

  • I have 25 years of expertise in women's mental and reproductive health. I offer integrative mental health treatment to women facing difficulties with PMS, PMDD, and postpartum depression and anxiety. Further, I have expertise in treating mental health symptoms related to perimenopause and perimenopause. I evaluate the interplay between hormones such as thyroid, cortisol, estrogen, and progesterone and their impact on mental health symptoms.

    • Integrative Psychiatric Institute, Personalized Medicine Program, 2024—present 

    • Psychiatry Redefined, Advanced Fellowship, 2022—2023 

    • Psychiatry Redefined, Fellowship, 2020—2022 

    • Ketogenic Diet for Mental Health, Dr. Georgia Ede, 2021

    • Mastering Brain Chemistry: Walsh Institute, 2019

    • Breath Body Mind with Dr. Gerbarg & Dr. Brown, 2014 

    • Yoga Training at Kripalu Center For Yoga & Health, 2014 

    • Medical Director, Crisis Intervention Services, New York City Department of Mental Health, 1994—2001 

    • Fellowship in Public Psychiatry, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY. 1991—1992 

    • Chief Resident, NYU / Bellevue Medical Center, 1986—1987

    • Residency in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, NYU / Bellevue Medical Center, 1983—1986

    • SUNY Downstate Medical School, 1983

    • City College, CUNY, Six Yr., B.S.M.D., 1981

Contact Me

Please feel free to call or email me to discuss rates and to set up an appointment. I look forward to hearing from you!

P: (973) 509 1125

Email: celfenbeinmd@gmail.com