Grounded Team
Alex Tomback and Hillary Perlman founded Grounded Therapy as a way to provide accessible support for those in need. We believe the most effective therapy is client-centered and evidence-based and specialize in individual, couples, and group therapy.
Hillary Perlman • Co-Founder & Clinical Director
Hillary (she/her) is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who earned her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University in 2012. She works with individuals and couples navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, complicated grief, major life transitions, chronic health conditions–including HIV/AIDS–as well as concerns related to sexuality and gender. She brings a warm, grounded, and authentic presence to therapy and uses curiosity, humor, and compassion to encourage healing.
Drawing on over a decade of clinical experience, Hillary integrates Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), two evidence-based approaches for healing from traumatic experiences. She continues to deepen her clinical skills through ongoing training in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, trauma-informed, and relational modalities.
Alex Tomback• Co-Founder & Clinical Director
Alex (she/her) is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and a graduate of the Columbia University School of Social Work who works with individuals, couples, families, and groups. Her approach is relational, attachment-driven, warm, and collaborative, creating a space where healing and meaningful change can begin.
Alex is trained in a blend of therapeutic methodologies, including Sex Therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Trauma-Informed CBT, and Family Systems Therapy. Alex draws from these modalities to tailor treatment to each client’s needs and support their growth.
Therapists
Alice Roberts• Therapist
Alice (she/her) is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) who graduated from New York University in 2007. She works with individuals, couples, and families seeking stronger, more fulfilling relationships. Rooted in attachment-based theories, her therapeutic style is warm and grounded, creating a safe space for clients to explore their inner worlds and relational patterns.
Alice has extensive training across a range of modalities, with particular emphasis on Sex Therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and Somatic Experiencing. These approaches inform much of her work and allow her to support clients in understanding both their emotional and physical experiences, navigating intimacy, and deepening connection.
She also has advanced training in Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), Family Constellations, and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). Certified by the Ackerman Institute for the Family, Alice draws from her diverse clinical background to tailor treatment to the unique needs of each client.
Alina Augustin• Therapist
Alina (they/them) is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and a graduate of the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. They offer compassionate, eclectic, and evidence-based psychotherapy, practicing through an anti-racist, LGBTQIA+ affirming, trauma-informed, and neurodivergent-informed lens to create a space where clients feel safe, seen, and supported.
Alina specializes in working with individuals who struggle with belonging and feel caught in cycles of depression, anxiety, fear, or emotional overwhelm. They draw from psychodynamic theory, trauma-informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and motivational interviewing, tailoring each session to meet clients’ unique needs and goals.
Alyssa Romano • Therapist
Alyssa (she/her/hers) is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and graduate of the Columbia University School of Social Work. Her therapeutic style is engaging yet casual, creating a comfortable space to explore thoughts, feelings, and experiences with curiosity, openness, and authenticity. Alyssa strives to ensure that people feel at ease being their authentic selves, offering a refreshing and relatable presence throughout the therapeutic process.
Alyssa specializes in working with young adults and adults navigating anxiety, life transitions, trauma, and relationship or family conflict. She is a trained EMDR therapist and integrates this evidence-based modality as a core part of her work with clients seeking to process and heal from traumatic experiences. Alyssa believes that EMDR can provide a powerful pathway to lasting relief and is passionate about making this approach accessible and empowering for the individuals she supports.
Drawing from a variety of interventions including, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic approaches, Alyssa tailors her sessions to each person’s unique needs and goals. She brings together these modalities along with EMDR to foster open, collaborative dialogue and help clients move through stressors with greater clarity, confidence, and connection to themselves.
Aoife Hough • Therapist
Aoife (she/her) is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and graduate of Columbia School of Social Work. She is passionate about enacting anti-racist and anti-oppressive principles in her therapy work and believes deeply in disability justice, Health at Every Size, sex positivity, and queer and trans liberation.
She has been trained in a variety of methodologies, including Sex therapy and Sensate Focus techniques, Internal Family Systems, and Somatic Experiencing. She has experience working with people navigating anxiety, depression, OCD, and trauma.
Aoife believes in meeting clients exactly where they are, centering their expertise in their own lived experience, and celebrating each person’s internal wisdom and capacity for growth. She brings a warm and relational connection to her work with individuals, couples/polycules, and groups, creating a space for vulnerability and change.
Heather Spurrell • Therapist
Heather (she/her) is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and graduate of New York University. She works collaboratively with clients to explore areas where they feel stuck and identify new ways to move forward. Heather has extensive experience supporting clients as they navigate relationships, life transitions, anxiety, depression, trauma, fertility, and the perinatal and parenting stages. Her approach integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, DBT, and psychodynamic modalities to meet each client’s unique needs.
Heather’s style is warm, authentic, compassionate, and deeply empathic. She believes that meaningful therapeutic work begins when clients feel safe, understood, and connected. Heather honors the strengths and wisdom that each client brings to the process. She takes an active and curious stance to address challenges and understand how unconscious patterns can shape clients’ lives.
Julian Goldhagen • Therapist
Julian (they/them) is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and a 2018 graduate of the Hunter College School of Social Work. Julian works with individuals and couples around topics including sex, intimacy, relationships, gender and sexuality, identity, anxiety, depression, and major life transitions. They help clients tell their stories, develop agency, and shift unhelpful narratives and negative beliefs. Their practice draws from Narrative Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Grounded in social justice and equity, Julian has extensive experience as both a sex educator and therapist and specializes in offering sex therapy to individuals and couples. They are committed to creating a supportive, affirming space where clients can explore themselves more fully and move toward growth, connection, and empowerment.
Their background as a community organizer, theater artist, and sex educator deeply informs their therapeutic approach.
Justin Vahala • Therapist
Justin Vahala (he/him/él) is a licensed psychotherapist (LMFT-LP) and graduate of the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he received his Master’s in Counseling Psychology. He works with individuals, couples, and families to address anxiety, depression, trauma, life transitions, and questions of identity and purpose. Justin also has particular expertise in working with artists and performers.
As a therapist, Justin is warm, direct, and creative. His style supports clients in exploring emotional patterns, strengthening relationships, and connecting more deeply with their sense of meaning and purpose.
Justin is trained in psychodynamic, relational, and transpersonal approaches to therapy, as well as hypnotherapy and sex therapy. He is also a trained Accelerated Resolution Therapist (ART), helping survivors of trauma work through difficult memories and emotions. His work is grounded in liberation-based psychology and a multicultural perspective. He is bilingual in English and Spanish and proficient in French and Portuguese.
In addition to his clinical training, Justin is a certified Reiki Master, a yoga teacher, performing artist, and tarologist. He can integrate these practices for clients seeking more holistic or transpersonal approaches to healing.
Lara Ngu • Therapist
Lara (she/her/hers) is an MHC-LP and a graduate of Northwestern University’s Master’s in Counseling program, working with a wide range of concerns and specializing in fertility, perinatal, and early parenthood issues, as well as toxic and abusive relationships, including narcissistic abuse. She believes deeply in the power of building meaningful connections–both with oneself and with others–and draws on her lived experience and clinical training to support clients in finding healing, contentment, and purpose.
Lara’s integrative and relational approach blends Psychodynamic Theory, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the Gottman Method, and Relational Life Therapy (RLT). Having completed Gottman Levels I and II, she is an approved Gottman Connect provider and utilizes the research-based Gottman Relationship Checkup with couples.
In Lara’s therapeutic space, clients encounter a warm, empathetic, and non-judgmental environment where they can safely explore their emotions and experiences.
Supervisors
Ric Mathews • Clinical Supervisor (LMHC)
Ric (he/him/his) is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over ten years of experience in health and wellness. A native New Yorker who is multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual, Ric brings a deeply informed and inclusive perspective to his work.
Ric is part of the core faculty in the Sex Therapy Program at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy (ICP). He holds post-graduate clinical certificates in sex therapy and in gender and sexuality studies (both from ICP), trauma-informed clinical care (NYU), and EMDR (Helping Hands). He also holds multiple certifications in yoga, meditation, and Thai Yoga massage. In addition to his clinical practice, Ric is a published writer and is frequently quoted as a mental health expert in major news outlets.
Ric’s therapeutic style is integrative, holistic, and eclectic, drawing from psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, narrative, yoga, and mindfulness-based therapies. His approach is culturally sensitive, open, sex-positive, anti-oppression, anti-racist, anti-patriarchy, anti-heteronormative, and feminist.
Interns
Alyssa Romo • Marketing Manager and Intern Coordinator
Alyssa is currently pursuing her Master’s in Social Work at New York University, where she is building a strong foundation in evidence-based social work practice. She is completing her internship teaching sex education and pregnancy prevention to adolescents in under-resourced communities across New York City, work that has strengthened her dedication to helping people build healthier, more empowered relationships.
A graduate of Columbia University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology summa cum laude, Alyssa previously conducted research on stress reactivity in college students and co-rumination in romantic relationships through the Columbia Couples Lab. Being Mexican, Chinese, and Jewish, she brings a multicultural lens to her work and takes pride in her ability to connect with people from all backgrounds. She resonates deeply with the complexity each person holds and has a genuine curiosity for understanding others in a way that helps them feel seen.
Mikayla Wong• Marketing and Research Intern
Mikayla is a third year undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Psychology with a minor in Disability Studies. She was born and raised in the Bay Area, where the diverse community has driven her curiosity for healthcare and social change. Some of her greatest interests lie in mental health advocacy and developmental research, with a focus in underserved populations. Her time in college has allowed her to aid in the construction in multiple mental health apps, start initiatives for online healthcare support systems, and engage in her own research on anxiety and ADHD. Pursuing a career in medicine, Mikayla hopes to work with neurodivergent children - promoting empathy and inclusion while reducing social and behavioral stigma. With her unwavering commitment to her medical aspirations, Mikayla hopes to make a meaningful impact in the future of care and compassion.