Dr. Gabby Ciminera, Psy.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
About Gabby
Dr. Gabrielle Ciminera, Psy.D., BCB is a postdoctoral fellow practicing both in-person and virtually in New York at CBT for Better Living. She has experience working with individuals with a range of anxiety disorders – including generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder – as well as chronic pain conditions and mood-related concerns. Dr. Ciminera has also worked with individuals across the lifespan, tailoring her therapeutic approach to meet the developmental needs of each life stage.
Clinical Training
Dr. Ciminera completed her pre-doctoral internship through IGCP, with her first internship placement at the Jefferson Headache Center in Philadelphia, PA and her second internship placement at Swarthmore College Counseling Center (CAPS) in Media, PA. At Jefferson, she received specialized training in treating individuals living with chronic pain, using interventions like ACT, CBT for Chronic Pain (CBT-CP), mindfulness, and biofeedback. She also collaborated with a multidisciplinary healthcare team – including neurologists, nurses, and other medical support staff – to provide holistic patient care and advocate for patients’ needs. At Swarthmore CAPS, Dr. Ciminera provided individual therapy, group therapy, and walk-in crisis services to college students. She also co-facilitated two process-oriented therapy groups focused on enhancing interpersonal connection and relational skills among students.
Education & Research
Dr. Ciminera earned her B.A. in psychology, with a minor in philosophy, from St. John’s University in Queens, NY. She received her Psy.D. in clinical psychology from the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology (IGCP) at Widener University in Chester, PA, where she also completed board certification training in biofeedback.
Her research interests include health psychology, chronic pain, biofeedback, and women’s sexual health disorders. Her doctoral research proposed a theoretical ACT-based protocol to enhance the treatment of women with vaginismus undergoing physical therapy.
Therapeutic Approach
Dr. Ciminera integrates evidence-based treatments like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure and response prevention (ERP) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). She frequently draws on her specialized training in biofeedback to bring mindfulness and mind-body connection into the therapy space. She views somatic-based interventions like mindfulness and biofeedback as empowering tools that help clients gain agency over physiological processes that are typically thought to be involuntary.
Dr. Ciminera also emphasizes the integration of self-compassion into cognitive-behavioral therapy to support clients in shifting their relationship with unhelpful thought patterns. By fostering a more supportive and nonjudgmental inner dialogue, she helps enhance clients’ engagement and outcomes in therapy. Her approach prioritizes the development of a safe and collaborative therapeutic relationship, grounded in emotional validation and exploration. Through a relational lens, Dr. Ciminera supports clients in connecting the dynamics of the therapy space to clients’ broader relational experiences—fostering deeper self-awareness and insight into thoughts, behaviors, and patterns of connection with others.
In Person
100 Melrose Ave
Greenwich, CT 06830
Virtual Sessions
Virtual sessions anywhere in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas and Florida