Location

Sterling Counseling serves the BIPOC media executives, technology founders, and corporate leaders who work and live in Hudson Yards with clinical depth and cultural fluency built specifically for the psychological experience of having risen faster than anyone anticipated and arriving in positions that feel simultaneously earned and vertiginous. This practice was built for the professional whose external life looks like the definition of success and whose interior experience has never had an adequate clinical space to match it. Hudson Yards is the newest neighborhood in Manhattan, built on a platform over the West Side rail yards and still in the process of defining itself. The towers of 30 Hudson Yards and 10 Hudson Yards house major media companies, investment firms, and technology businesses whose executives work at the intersection of creative and financial power. The High Line extends from Chelsea into the development's southern edge. The Javits Center to the north hosts the events that draw industries together from across the country. Hell's Kitchen borders the development to the northeast, with its working-class history running adjacent to the neighborhood's architectural ambition. Chelsea extends to the south. The Hudson River Park traces the western edge. The West Side Highway carries traffic past it. The new retail and cultural spaces within Hudson Yards itself are still being activated. This is a neighborhood that was built in the last decade, and the power concentrated within it is similarly recent. Hudson Yards attracts a specific kind of BIPOC professional: the media executive whose career trajectory has been extraordinary by any measure, the first-generation wealth builder whose ascent happened faster than any map they had was prepared for, the corporate leader whose name was not supposed to be on the masthead and whose presence there still carries a quality of unreality. BIPOC therapist Hudson Yards means holding the specific vertigo of altitude, the clinical experience of having arrived somewhere extraordinary without the psychological infrastructure for what that arrival actually costs.

The BIPOC media executives and technology leaders in Hudson Yards who come to this practice often share a characteristic that their external biographies do not capture: the interior experience of having arrived in positions of genuine power and feeling fundamentally unprepared for what that arrival actually involves. The ascent was not supposed to go this high, this fast. The neighborhood was not here ten years ago, and neither was this version of the career. The clinical work holds the psychological reality of that position. As this work progresses, the interior experience begins to stabilize. The authority that the professional world already recognizes begins to be felt from the inside. The relationships where performance had replaced presence begin to open up. The anxiety of altitude becomes something workable rather than something that has to be hidden from the people who report to you. Racial and cultural context is the clinical foundation. The specific experience of being a first in your industry, your company, or your professional network is held as primary clinical material from the very first session.

The pace of Hudson Yards professional culture offers no natural pause for grief. For BIPOC professionals whose careers are moving at exceptional velocity, the loss of a parent or a person of deep significance arrives in the middle of lives that have no structural accommodation for it. This service creates the clinical space that the professional calendar never provides. The work holds the full range of loss: personal bereavement, anticipatory grief, the collective mourning of cultural figures, and the less visible griefs that accumulate over a career of exceptional performance in environments not built for you. All of it receives clinical attention. Where advance care planning conversations belong in the clinical picture, they are integrated naturally alongside the grief work. The practical and emotional dimensions of what is coming are addressed as a coherent whole.

The BIPOC professionals who have built careers in Hudson Yards' media and technology towers often find that the velocity of their professional ascent has left their relational lives without the same investment. Two partners navigating first-generation wealth, extraordinary career trajectories, and the cultural histories each person brings to how intimacy, conflict, and vulnerability are expressed. These relational dynamics are specific. Generic couples therapy often misses them. As this work progresses, couples describe a growing capacity to actually be in the relationship rather than running it as a parallel project alongside their professional lives. The patterns that have defined certain relational dynamics for years begin to shift at the level of emotional experience. Emotion-Focused Therapy and Attachment-Based approaches form the clinical foundation. This practice is LGBTQ+ affirming and holds both partners' full identities as central.

The trauma that BIPOC professionals carry into Hudson Yards from the years of ascent that preceded their arrival does not resolve simply because the title or the address has changed. The racial encounters absorbed on the way up. The microaggressions that accumulated across a career of exceptional performance in environments that registered surprise at every achievement. The physiological record the body has been keeping. The new neighborhood and the new position do not erase what was required to reach them. The change in this work is a settling of the chronic activation that has been running beneath the achievement. Specific memories lose their current charge. The triggers that have been producing disproportionate responses in professional interactions become manageable. A baseline steadiness emerges that the altitude of success alone was not able to provide. Treatment is calibrated to each client's specific trauma history and paced for what their nervous system is genuinely ready to process. The approaches reach trauma at the depth where it is actually held.

There is a category of what BIPOC media and technology professionals in Hudson Yards carry that the extraordinary achievement has not and cannot address. The racial incident that the nervous system is still processing years after the career moved forward. The early professional humiliation that still shapes how significant meetings are anticipated. The pattern that arrives in high-stakes professional interactions despite everything that has been built since. EMDR reaches those experiences at the level where they are held. What clients describe after completing this work is not simply a new narrative about the past. It is a changed body's relationship to it. The activations that used to arrive reliably no longer carry their previous charge. A baseline of steadiness becomes the actual daily experience rather than a temporary state achieved through effort. The eight-phase protocol is applied with cultural fluency and paced for what the client's nervous system is genuinely ready for. Preparation receives the full clinical attention it requires before processing begins.

BIPOC professionals in Hudson Yards who come to CBT through this practice typically arrive with a sophisticated analysis of their own patterns and a frustration that analysis has not changed them. The anxiety is named and still running. The perfectionism is understood and still governing the calendar. CBT here is culturally grounded, holding the racial and professional context of those patterns as central rather than treating them as separate from the cognitive work. Progress tends to appear as a quieter internal environment in the professional situations that have been most activating. The thought cycles shorten. The anxiety scales to actual conditions. The reactivity that has characterized certain interactions becomes a more measured and deliberate response. Where cognitive patterns have deeper roots, the work extends to address that foundation. The approach is responsive to what each client's presentation actually requires.

In Hudson Yards' newest towers, the imposter syndrome carried by BIPOC executives and media leaders takes on the specific quality of altitude sickness. The position was not supposed to be reachable. The masthead was not built with someone like you in mind. The board presentation is happening in a room that still does not entirely know what to do with you being the person at the front of it. And still the work is exceptional. And still the doubt persists. The shift this work produces is a more stable and inhabited sense of professional identity. The achievement becomes something that belongs to the person who built it rather than something that requires continuous defense. The internal audit quiets to something that no longer dominates the professional experience. The clinical approach holds the cognitive dimension of imposter syndrome alongside the systemic reality of environments that withheld validation along racial lines throughout the ascent. Both require clinical attention. Neither is sufficient on its own.

The media and technology executives who have built careers in Hudson Yards' newest towers need a coaching relationship that can hold both the scale and the speed of what they are building. The specific experience of leading an organization at the level that this neighborhood concentrates, while navigating the racial dynamics of being the exception at that level, requires coaching that holds the strategic and the deeply personal in equal measure. Clients describe the coaching as producing a clarity about their own leadership that the velocity of their ascent had made difficult to access. What they are building, why it matters, where the gap between performed leadership and genuine leadership has been costing them. The clarity holds even when the pace does not slow. Twelve years of clinical work with BIPOC high achievers inform every coaching engagement. The racial and cultural dimensions of leadership in the highest-profile sectors are held as central throughout.

“Olivia has walked with me from emerging to young adulthood, and in doing so I've become more present and assured due to her therapeutic process. Olivia's deep clinical expertise coupled with her worldliness forge an expansive approach to healing—a journey that's been a worthwhile investment of time and energy. Being under Olivia's care has allowed me to re-imagine life stressors and become reacquainted with joy. If there's any part of you that wants to come home to yourself, Sterling Counseling Services is the space to do so. Olivia's work feels more like a calling than just a duty, and I recommend her wholeheartedly. Thank you!”

— S.T.

“I have worked with Olivia since 2021 and cannot emphasize how transformative of an experience I have had over the last six years. I am immeasurably privileged to have had the opportunity to work with her through some of the most challenging years of my twenties. Olivia is one of my biggest supporters and confidants, and always there to listen without judgement. She has equipped me with tools and techniques to manage my anxiety and navigate turbulent moments and life changes. During a time when I felt truly "stuck," she was patient and compassionate. Through the years, she has encouraged me to develop the confidence to move forward and pursue some of my most lofty goals. We have explored topics like family dynamics, relationships, grief and career changes. One of the best things about my time working with Olivia has been her ability to help me reconnect with parts of myself that I felt like I forgot about. Olivia encouraged me to pursue one of my already existing but somewhat dormant hobbies, including running. I took up running again, which has brought me so much peace and mental clarity and I am pleased to say that I got into the New York City Marathon this fall. I highly recommend her services to anyone looking for trauma-informed care to help them feel "unstuck" and reconnect with themselves.”

— JP.

"Working with Olivia has been such a gift. She’s patient, kind, insightful, compassionate, adaptable, and attentive (aka everything that you’d want a therapist to embody). But something that makes working with her feel really special and safe is her cultural and sociopolitical fluency. She understands that just like trauma, our identities and our worlds are complex, and she does a brilliant job honoring and holding all of those complexities in balance. I feel really seen in her care, and through her guidance and support, I’ve been able to build my skill set and resilience for navigating life’s challenges, and find my way back to reclaiming my voice and sense of self.”

— CB.

“My experience with Sterling Counseling has been transformative. Olivia's style allows me to feel comfortable and safe while working through the toughest moments of my life. Therapy here doesn't feel like a chore, but an active part of my mental wellness routine with tools and recommendations that are easy to act on. No matter what I come into a session with - whether it is grief, depression, fears, work stress, or life changes - Olivia helps me work through it all with such care. I'm so grateful for everything Sterling Counseling has done for me.”

— R.C.

“Olivia has helped me thoughtfully navigate several major transitions in my romantic relationships, familial relationships, friendships, my career, and my mental and physical health. She has skillfully blended different therapeutic modalities to help me address my unique circumstances and challenges, so I always feel like I have a way to approach the things I bring to therapy that is tailored exactly to me. Olivia balances challenging me to think differently when necessary, while also remaining warm and non-judgmental. I have made significant progress with my overall mental health. Thanks to my work with Olivia, I know myself better, I am managing my challenges better, and I feel empowered."

— S.T.

“Olivia has walked with me from emerging to young adulthood, and in doing so I've become more present and assured due to her therapeutic process. Olivia's deep clinical expertise coupled with her worldliness forge an expansive approach to healing—a journey that's been a worthwhile investment of time and energy. Being under Olivia's care has allowed me to re-imagine life stressors and become reacquainted with joy. If there's any part of you that wants to come home to yourself, Sterling Counseling Services is the space to do so. Olivia's work feels more like a calling than just a duty, and I recommend her wholeheartedly. Thank you!”

— S.T.

“I have worked with Olivia since 2021 and cannot emphasize how transformative of an experience I have had over the last six years. I am immeasurably privileged to have had the opportunity to work with her through some of the most challenging years of my twenties. Olivia is one of my biggest supporters and confidants, and always there to listen without judgement. She has equipped me with tools and techniques to manage my anxiety and navigate turbulent moments and life changes. During a time when I felt truly "stuck," she was patient and compassionate. Through the years, she has encouraged me to develop the confidence to move forward and pursue some of my most lofty goals. We have explored topics like family dynamics, relationships, grief and career changes. One of the best things about my time working with Olivia has been her ability to help me reconnect with parts of myself that I felt like I forgot about. Olivia encouraged me to pursue one of my already existing but somewhat dormant hobbies, including running. I took up running again, which has brought me so much peace and mental clarity and I am pleased to say that I got into the New York City Marathon this fall. I highly recommend her services to anyone looking for trauma-informed care to help them feel "unstuck" and reconnect with themselves.”

— JP.

I am Olivia Sterling, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the founder of Sterling Counseling. Over twelve years of clinical work with high-achieving BIPOC professionals have shown me that the velocity of an extraordinary ascent creates its own category of clinical need, one that most therapy spaces are not designed to address. Built on graduate training from Columbia University and shaped by years of clinical work with the specific psychology of BIPOC high achievers, this practice holds what the achievement does not make visible. For the professionals navigating the newest neighborhood in Manhattan and the newest positions in their industries, this is the clinical space that was missing. Defying impossible odds got you here. The work here is what happens after.

How to find an aligned Black therapist?
Finding a Black therapist in New York who is the right clinical fit, not just culturally competent on paper, but actually built for the specific complexity of your life, takes more than a directory search. Start by identifying what you actually need from the work: racial trauma treatment, evidence-based modalities, a practice designed for high-achieving professionals, or all of the above. Sterling Counseling was built for exactly this. You can reach out directly through the contact page to start a conversation and find out whether this is the right fit before committing to anything.
Is it important to see a Black therapist as a Black person?
For many clients, yes, and the clinical reasons go deeper than representation. A Black therapist brings shared cultural context that changes what is possible in the room. You do not have to spend sessions explaining why racial microaggressions affect your sleep, or why being the only one in a room of hundreds carries a specific kind of weight. That context is already in the room, which means the work can begin where it actually needs to, not at the level of education, but at the level of treatment. At Sterling Counseling, racial trauma is not a side topic. It is part of the clinical formulation from session one.
What is a red flag for a Black therapist?
For high-achieving BIPOC professionals, the most common red flag is a therapist who cannot hold the full context. If you spend the first several sessions explaining what systemic racism costs before the actual work can begin, that room is not built for you. Other red flags include feeling judged for your success, having your cultural or racial experience minimized or sidestepped, receiving generic treatment that does not account for your specific life, or leaving sessions more depleted than when you arrived. At Sterling Counseling, the context you have spent years translating is the clinical floor we start on, not a detour.
I have tried therapy before and it did not help. How is this different?
Most therapy rooms are not built for the specific clinical complexity of high-achieving BIPOC professionals. If your previous experience required you to educate your therapist before the real work could begin, or if the treatment felt disconnected from the actual weight you were carrying, that is a failure of fit, not a failure of therapy or of you.
Do I need a diagnosis to work with you?
No. Many of the clients who come to Sterling Counseling are high-functioning by every external measure and have never received a formal diagnosis. What they carry, racial trauma, childhood attachment wounds, unnamed ADHD, the long performance of composure, does not always come with a label. You do not need one to begin. You need a clinical space built to hold the full picture and a clinician trained to work with it precisely.
What does the first session look like?
The first session is a conversation, not an assessment. We use the time to begin building the clinical picture together, your history, your current experience, what brought you here, and what you want from the work. There is no script and no standardized intake form driving the agenda. By the end of the first session, you should have a clear sense of whether this space feels right and what working together could look like. The goal is for you to leave feeling met, not processed.
Do you accept insurance?
Yes. We accept the following insurance plans for grief counseling services. Private pay is also available. If you're using out-of-network benefits, we can also provide a superbill for reimbursement.

We use Thrizer as our payment platform to process out-of-network benefits and payments. Out-of-pocket rates are available as outlined above.

Accepted insurance plans include:

Aetna
Oscar
Optum
United Healthcare
Cigna
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of New York
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Carelon Behavioral Health
Are sessions in person or virtual?
All sessions are currently offered virtually through a secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth video platform. At this time, Sterling Counseling does not offer in-person appointments, allowing clients across New York to access care from the privacy and convenience of their own space.
Cancellation policy
Sessions are typically 55 minutes long and are scheduled at a consistent weekly time, although session frequency may be adjusted based on your needs. If you need to cancel or reschedule, please provide at least 24 hours' notice. Appointments canceled with less than 24 hours' notice, or missed without notice, are subject to a $75 cancellation fee, unless circumstances beyond your control prevented you from attending. If availability allows, we'll do our best to help you reschedule. Please also plan to arrive on time, as sessions will end at their scheduled time.

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Explore my therapy services and specializations

Individual Therapy for High Achievers

Grief Counseling

Couples Therapy

Trauma Therapy

EMDR & PTSD Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Imposter Syndrome Therapy

Executive Coaching

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Testimonials

Meet Olivia Sterling, Black -Afro Latina therapist in New York City

Frequently Asked Questions

How to find an aligned Black therapist?

Is it important to see a Black therapist as a Black person?

What is a red flag for a Black therapist?

I have tried therapy before and it did not help. How is this different?

Do I need a diagnosis to work with you?

What does the first session look like?

Do you accept insurance?

Are sessions in person or virtual?

Cancellation policy

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