Short-Term Mental Health Counseling

Supporting Clients While Strengthening Legal Claims

by Mark D. Lerner, Ph.D.

Clinical & Forensic Psychologist

Chairman, The National Center for Emotional Wellness

Lerner Psychological Services, P.C., provides short-term, evidence-based mental health counseling that complements forensic psychological evaluations and directly supports litigation strategy.

Plaintiffs who have been harmed are often referred for evaluation of emotional damage. Short-term counseling—generally lasting three to six sessions—offers clients immediate, supportive, goal-directed, and empirically informed care. Clients are seen by David G. Lerner, LMSW, either in person or through secure remote sessions.

Each counseling session is carefully documented in concise Session Notes. These records may be provided to counsel to supply contemporaneous collateral data that corroborates emotional distress and functional impairment, thereby strengthening the evidentiary foundation of the case. Short-term counseling does not preclude a recommendation for psychiatric evaluation or longer-term treatment when indicated.

Courts have repeatedly recognized that documented engagement in psychotherapy constitutes compelling proof of emotional distress. Unlike “garden variety” claims of embarrassment, humiliation, or upset feelings—relying solely on a plaintiff’s testimony—records of treatment by licensed mental health professionals furnish convergent evidence of significant and, in many cases, egregious emotional harm.

* Clients, even if seen remotely, must be in New York due to state licensing laws.

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