JFS is pleased to welcome its newest therapist, A.Jay Horowitz, to our community.
A.Jay brings decades of expertise in trauma therapy and mental health treatment to our team. He is the former clinical director of the DC Addiction System and spent eight years treating various disorders in the military.
A.Jay’s passion is for working with clients with trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. “Anyone can be traumatized at any point in their life,” he says. “It’s like a wound that grows. Statistically, 20% of people who are traumatized will develop Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).”
By treating PTSD, A.Jay helps patients be able to return to their normal lives. “Depending on the severity of the trauma and PTSD, someone may have responses that make them overly sensitive or anxious by what may be occurring around them. They also may avoid certain conversations or going to specific places. Relationships and the ability to connect and feel good about yourself is also impacted by trauma.”
A.Jay primarily treats clients using Cognitive Processing Therapy, an evidence-based approach that helps those with trauma reframe their thinking about life events and actions and how those things affect them. He uses a self-reporting tool that gauges the severity of trauma throughout treatment and measures success. “It’s an up-and-down process rather than a straight line,” he says.
A.Jay recently moved here with his spouse from San Diego and is excited to work with JFS. “Everybody’s been very warm and friendly,” he says. “I am Jewish and being in a Jewish organization for the first time in my career feels very comfortable. I love the caring and open ethos of Judaism with which this organization is run.”
