Dr. Robert Schachter

Licensed New York Psychologist NYC

Cognitive Therapy for Quick Results

Assistant Clinical Professor Mount Sinai School of Medicine

(212) 308-1666 Call Now

Reviews

55 out of 5 stars (based on 20 reviews)
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Dr. S. helped me like no one else.

July 5, 2019

Dr. S. helped me like no one else. I have seen a lot of therapists, and he was the best. He was direct and helped me learn practical ways to feel better in a pretty short time. The therapists I saw before would just listen to what I said or try to connect what I was feeling to something that happened when I was little. I never got that because there was nothing I could do about it anyway. I was going through a lot of anxiety. I am in the travel business and I recently was promoted to head of a team. As leader of my group, I had to give a presentation every week. I was never good at that, and I was always afraid that I would make a fool of myself. Then one time my boss and his boss were at the meeting. I actually would get sick the mornings I had to present. That just couldn’t go on. A friend had said that Dr. S. was great, so I called. I liked him right away. He was warm and he seemed smart. He got the fine points of what I was saying. He really understood me in that one visit. At the end he told me that there were some simple ways to stop the anxiety. He also said that I would have to face my fears. I thought, is he kidding? I face them everyday. He used Cognitive Therapy that he said was developed by David Burns. It was amazing. I learned that I actually could control how badly I felt by changing my thoughts. He said that the way to beat anxiety is to ride it, like surfing a wave. Sometimes it goes up and then it goes down. It can’t hurt us. It just makes us uncomfortable. The key is to watch it and not be part of it. Then he taught me how do that in a very structured, easy to understand way. It was really a great experience. (From Google)

amy daniels

I found Dr. Schachter’s approach so helpful it has literally changed my life.

February 15, 2019

I found Dr. Schachter’s approach so helpful it has literally changed my life. I was in a bad place. I am a trader and I was having a bad year. I would get up and not want to face the day. I was drinking too much to unwind. I was always in a bad mood with my wife and kids. One day I felt so stressed I lost it at work. A friend said I should see Dr. Schachter because he had helped him. I liked him right away. He asked the right questions. I don’t like when people can’t keep up with me, but he seemed smart and appeared to get me. I knew I was depressed, but I didn’t know what to do about it. Dr. Schachter did not just sit there and say nothing. He taught me in a structured way to put things into perspective. It really does come down to how you look at something. He told me that depression is normal if you are in a frustrating situation that you feel you can’t change. When you get depressed the symptoms are the opposite of what you need at that time. He used the Cognitive Therapy approach developed by David Burns. So, he started by teaching me to see what thoughts were causing a feeling. A lot of the time they were not realistic. When I got discouraged, I would forget that I have been very good at what I do. I would assume that there was no way to get out of the hole I was in, and that simply was not true. He taught me to spot the times I was reacting. Then he would use a number of techniques or exercises to change the thought. It didn’t take long. He was really great. When I felt better, my work turned around. I feel like a totally changed person. (From Google)

Paul Avery

I truly am grateful to Dr. Schachter.

December 7, 2018

I truly am grateful to Dr. Schachter. May must have been one of the worst months in my life. This guy I had been seeing for almost a year decided that he wanted to explore his fuller self, and had to do it alone. I wasn’t devastated as much as I was angry and felt taken advantage of. It was enough to keep me up at night, a lot of nights. Then my firm, I’m in finance, decided to reorganize, and my boss believed that I would be the best person on the current team to run a new desk, with a pretty large team. I didn’t even want that. Now I have to manage them and I didn’t think I could. Giving talks to higher management was the worst fear. I was beside myself. Now I couldn’t sleep because I was so anxious. A friend had seen Dr. Schachter. She had thought he was good. No, she actually raved about him. I called. This man has changed my life in the most amazing ways. I had seen a few shrinks before, but they usually were not as smart as me, and they would sit and say nothing. It would drive me crazy. He is very different on all counts. At the first visit he asked me a lot of questions. At the end, he told me I was normal, and that I had an anxiety disorder that was blowing everything out of proportion. What I liked the best is that he then showed me concrete methods to stop the ways I was getting anxious. He used Cognitive Therapy he said was developed by David Burns to show me how to change how I was looking at the situation. When I did that, I was not anxious anymore. It really was amazing. So, it’s August, and I am feeling very good. My team is doing great Everything is falling into place and I am getting to sleep. I owe it all to Dr. Schachter. Thank you, sir. (From Google)

Ronnie Bell

Great doctor. Smart, no non-sense.

August 21, 2018

I was having trouble because I have always been timid about speaking up. I have been pretty lucky. I m successful in my work, but I always get nervous when I have to speak to a group of people. I was just promoted and will have to make big presentations all the time. A friend had seen Dr. S. and said he was good. Well, he really helped me. He asked a lot of questions, and finally said that I had a form of anxiety that was easy to treat. He said the therapy was the he would teach me a set of skills to find the thought that was under the nervousness and then change it. He also showed me practical things I should do when I start speaking. It was pretty amazing. I don t feel any anxiety in those situations and judging from my results, I’m up for another promotion. I really recommend him. (From Yahoo)

Richard

He really saved me.

September 15, 2017

I am a real estate broker, and I had been doing quite well. The market has been up and I have had a nice year. Last month I broke up with my boyfriend after seeing him for 6 months. He wasn’t right for me, and I wasn’t getting younger. I knew it was the right thing to do, but afterwards, I really fell apart. I couldn’t sleep. I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t care about my work. When I tried to get back with him, he said that it was the right thing to break up, and it never would work. I knew he was right, but I couldn’t stop thinking about him. A friend my seeing this psychiatrist who I didn’t need medicine, but I needed to figure out how to handle my feelings. He sent me to Dr. Schachter. I am glad he did. Dr. Schachter was very smart. The first time I was there he asked what seemed like 100 questions, and after that, he helped me understand what was wrong. He didn’t just sit there and say nothing. He explained in plain English that I had a depression because of the change and the loss. He also said that it was normal in this type of situation and that depression is hard because the symptoms are so overpowering. He said he could help me. He showed me that when I started feeling bad, I was making a choice to think of the things that would make me sad. I also had a choice to think about what was good about the breakup. He showed me how to do that. He insisted that I get back into my routine at work. He was very practical. He set up a schedule, and I did one step at a time. It finally hit me that I could change how I was thinking about it, and I started feeling better. Now I am in a relationship with an amazing man whom I never would have met, and I am very happy. Dr. Schachter was great. (From Google)

Elizabeth Myers

I recommend him Very Highly!!!

June 21, 2017

I was referred to Dr. Schachter by our Couples’ Therapist. My wife and I had been working out some issues when it was somehow determined that I had an anger problem. I didn’t think that I was unusual, but I went to see him in order not to make any waves. He was extraordinarily helpful. At first, he asked me a lot of questions He figured out what was going on rather quickly. And what he said was dead on correct. My wife and I have a very good, close relationship. We have squabbles like all couples. What he showed me that I really appreciated was that we had a system and when I would get frustrated, it was a normal response to a frustrating situation within that system. I had a volume knob, however, and I could adjust it to whatever volume would be most effective. Well, my wife does not like anger, so most effective was at a low volume. Once I got that, things changed remarkably. He was clear, insightful, and extremely helpful. (from Citysearch)

sheldon b.

I am very happy I found Dr. Schachter.

April 8, 2017

I was always shy and recently had been having trouble meeting peopIe, so I decided to get some help. I am in the financial services business and have seen a couple of psychologists in the past who were not helpful, so I searched online. He had good reviews, and I tried him. Dr. Schachter was better than the reviews. He had an uncanny knack of seeing the whole picture. He really got me. He understood how I thought. He was active and taught me actual skills that I could use to handle things differently. He was extremely helpful. His fees were not low, but it was definitely a good investment. (from Citysearch)

Marie C.

AMAZING.

March 29, 2017

Really Glad I Found Him. I don’t know how he did it, but my wife and I were at the brink, and now we are totally cool again. We have been married for five years and have two amazing kids, but things had gotten to a bad state. I found Dr. S. online. I read the reviews and I thought I’ll give him a try because a lot of different kinds of people seemed to connect to him and said he helped them. I am very glad I called. We had been getting into incredible fights because my wife had different ideas about what we needed to do. I have a high-powered job in advertising and I have to travel a lot. She was upset that I was never home and never helping out. The thing I liked most about Dr. S. was that he got us in about one hour. He was not like any other shrink I ever went to. He saw the whole picture, and he explained it in a way that both of us understood. He said that when you are stuck looking at something one way, you can’t see the other ways of seeing it. We saw him for a couple of months. He was creative, insightful, intelligent. He was amazing. My wife and I started talking instead of fighting and we are in love again. I am very grateful. (from Citysearch)

Roman N.

One of the Most Practical Doctors I ever met.

February 9, 2017

Dr. Schachter is one of the most practical and wonderful doctors I have ever met. I have suffered from depression for quite a while. I had seen some other shrinks who were not helpful. Most of the time, they would say nothing during the session except time’s up. Dr. S. started by asking me a lot of questions. Before beginning the therapy he had a really good sense of who I was and he discussed in plain English what we could do to help. He kept up with my thinking and seemed very sharp. I liked that. He explained that depression is one of the most difficult problems because the symptoms of the depression, like feeling discouraged, or hopeless or not having energy make you do the opposite of what you need to do to fight the depression. He taught me some very practical ways to identify the depressed thinking and reverse it when it started. He showed me how to fight back. He really helped me. (from Citysearch)

Roger Green

Finding Dr. S. was a lucky accident – He was great.

September 28, 2016

I found Dr. Schachter by accident. It was a lucky accident. I had been feeling like I needed to sort out some things in my life, but I had been in therapy before and I did not want one of those well meaning, but useless people who wouldn’t say anything back to me. I had heard of Cognitive Therapy from a friend of mine who said it really changed her life. So I was looking online and saw that Dr. Schachter was the president of the New York City Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association, and I saw some of his reviews. He ended up being better than all of the reviews. There were a few problems. I was in a relationship with a creep. I didn’t want to start the dating thing again, but I wasn’t happy. Also I have always been a people pleaser, so I always gave in. I learned that patterns like that could be consciously changed. He said that we get into habits of responding that then happen without thinking. He was right. I had a lot of bad habits. He said that they weren’t bad. They were just patterns that I had gotten used to using. He showed me how I thought poorly of myself although I had nothing to feel bad about. He then showed me to spot the patterns that didn’t get me what I wanted or needed and consciously replace them with alternatives that worked better. He actually had me keep track of them with diaries. It was amazing, but I got total control of my life. He is really great. He really helped. (from Citysearch)

Jo D

I just can’t thank this man enough.

September 15, 2016

He has been wonderful. He is accessible if I need him. He has made a great difference in my life. I have been depressed since I was a teenager, and have gone to many doctors. He and my psychopharmacologist have really saved me. Dr. Schachter has a way of putting the facts together that make sense and even when I feel bad, he can help me feel better. He has been great. (from Citysearch)

Victoria B.

He really made a difference in my life.

February 24, 2016

My life was at the best it had been and yet it felt like the worst it had been. I get paid a lot for what I do, but I hated it. Everyday I would go into an impossible work situation where everyone expected me to solve all the problems and there are so many that I freeze. I was also getting married, and wife is the most incredible person I ever met. Planning the wedding, though, was another thing that I had to do. I couldn’t sleep and I would get up dreading the day. I had nightmares all the time. Dr. Schachter had such a simple, but effective way of helping me put things in perspective. He said that it was my thoughts that were controlling how I felt, and that a lot of times the thoughts weren’t accurate. I felt like I couldn’t meet everyone’s expectations. He showed me that I had been meeting those expectations for years and this time was no different. I was actually scaring myself. He also showed me how to not take everything so seriously. A lot of the time I would drive myself crazy and there wasn’t even a good reason. He said that I had to save feeling bad for when there was a very good reason. He pointed out that I would do the same job, I would take my very best shot whether I made myself crazy or not. I suddenly was able to change the way I felt. I got married and I really loosened up at work. Life is a lot better. He really made a difference. (from Citysearch)

prjohnson2

Dr. Schachter is fantastic.

July 15, 2015

Dr. Schachter is fantastic. He helped me with my shyness, which was really becoming a problem. I own 2 successful restaurants in New York. I never have a problem with people at my job. I greet customers, I work well with staff, but when I am in a new situation and have to speak in front of a group, I freak out, and become very uncomfortable. It became a problem because I had just won an award and I had to go to a large function to receive it. I actually thought of turning it down. I found Dr. Schachter online. His reviews were good. I know why now. He is sensible, very smart, and down to earth. He asked me a lot of questions the first visit, instead of just sitting there. He got the picture very quickly, and told me that I had a common form of Social Anxiety. Instead of trying to explore my childhood, he gave me simple structured exercises to reverse it. He taught me Cognitive Therapy techniques in a straightforward manner. He described his role in Cognitive Therapy to teach me a skill set. He showed me a different way to look at things, and he helped me get over it. He was great. (From Google)

Richard Jenkins

Dr. Schachter is a Magician.

April 30, 2015

I had been in a terrible relationship that had gotten worse and finally ended. I felt terrible and my doctor had given me an anti-depressant and sent me to Dr. Schachter. He said the medicine was a start but I needed to find a different way of handling things. One big problem was that I kept obsessing about the guy even though we had not been happy for a long time. I couldn’t concentrate at work. I was not sleeping or eating. I didn’t enjoy doing anything. All I could do was think about him and what he was doing and whom he was with. It was very bad. Dr. Schachter taught me a different way to think about things. He used cognitive therapy to look at the thoughts I was making myself crazy with and to get a hold of them. Instead of thinking about what a great time he was having, I started thinking about the awful time he and I had been having. Instead of thinking that I wouldn’t meet anyone, I started looking for the kind of person I would want to be with. Long story short, I decided to stop wasting my time worrying about that guy and started looking for someone I would want to be with. We are getting married next month and I am happier than I have ever been. (from Citysearch)

Cindy001

Great!!!

April 9, 2015

I started seeing Dr. Schachter because I had a panic attack. I have manufacturing company and was introducing a new line. The week before our launch, I had the worst anxiety I ever had in my life. It didn’t make sense, This wasn’t exactly the first time I had a new product, but I was walking down the street, and a wave of panic came over me. I wasn’t thinking of anything, and suddenly I couldn’t breath. I had pains in my chest and my head. Things were spinning, and I ended up in the Emergency Room. After hours of tests, I was told that I had a panic attack, was given a tranquilizer and sent home. My internist recommended Dr. Schachter. He taught me ways to identify the thoughts that underlaid my anxieties and how to see if they were realistic. A lot of the time, they were not realistic at all, and he taught me how to change them and bring the anxiety under control. He also showed me stress reduction techniques that were helpful. The way he was most helpful, however, has been with my business. At my level, I don’t have a lot of people to talk with about many situations. I have a lot of smart people working for me, and they expect me to have the answers, not to tell them of my questions and my doubts. I had learned to handle my anxiety better and one day I was speaking about a problem that had come up with one of my senior employees. Dr. Schachter had an objective way of seeing my organization as a system and was able to show me how to handle the situation very effectively. Now I use him as a consultant on a weekly basis and I believe he has helped my business a great deal. (from Citysearch)

Roger A1115

Amazing Problem Solver.

October 21, 2014

Therapy with Dr. Schachter is like taking a course in life. He is not just a shrink. He’s a problem solver. I liked the way that he made sense out of everything for me. He connected the dots. I often get intolerant of people who can’t keep up with me. I am a perfectionist and I have always demanded the same from people. The problem is that they don’t always like that, and I have ended up isolated and alone a lot of the time. He taught me a way to change some of the behaviors I used automatically and spot the thoughts under my feelings, and then to express the a different way. He helped me identify the negative patterns of behavior that I use out of habit and how to use an alternative one when I spot it. It was pretty easy to change those behaviors that were there for years. I am impressed. (from Citysearch)

rschmidt99999

He really understood me.

July 1, 2014

I work in the fashion business, and I was upset. I didn’t get the promotion I expected. Being quite senior in the company, I complained and was given Dr. Schachter’s name as a coach. I never believed in that stuff and resisted calling for a while. Then I decided what did I have to lose. Dr. Schachter was really helpful. He asked a lot of questions about the firm, about the people I worked with, how I handled situations and how I dealt with my feelings. He then showed me in a very structured, down to earth way how to understand what was going on in the system, and how I could react differently. He called it outsmarting the situation. He said that there are patterns of behavior that become habits. We use these without thinking, but once I saw them happening, I could choose to do it differently and it really worked. He really understood me and he knew how to get through. It worked. I got the promotion. (from Citysearch)

carmtin

Really made a difference for me.

June 24, 2014

I am in the private banking business, and I wouldn’t ever write something like this online, except that I am so grateful to Dr. Schachter. I was going through a rough patch, like everybody does at times. My girlfriend decided that I wasn’t “committed enough”, and called it quits. I hated my job, and I just felt down. I figured that’s life and there was nothing to do about it until a friend who had seen him, told me about Dr. S. He asked a lot of questions. Then he explained what was going on. I wasn’t really depressed, but I felt bad for a good reason, actually two good reasons. He said that his approach, CBT was about learning a set of skills. He described his role like that of a tennis coach. He would teach me the strokes, he would practice with me, but then I would go out and do the therapy. It wasn’t his job to fix me or to go back to my childhood. And it worked. I looked at the behaviors I used out of habit. Once I saw them, I could change them, and in a short time, I felt a lot better. (from Citysearch)

dranger

A truly awesome doctor. Dr. Schachter is awesome.

September 5, 2012

I am a pretty normal guy, and I own a construction company. I am basically happy. The problem I had, however, was that I was nervous. I would go into a situation with other people and suddenly feel a sick wave pass over me, and I couldn’t find anything to say. Nobody would believe it, however. I played football in college and do not look shy. After asking me a lot of questions, Dr. Schachter explained what was going on. I had some kind of “social anxiety”, and it made sense. He explained that it is normal in some people, but also easily treatable. He said that when it works properly, anxiety is a warning system, like an alarm to tell you there is danger. But some people with anxiety get false alarms. He showed me how to identify and change the thoughts that were not accurate, and then he gradually had me go into the situations I was anxious in, and I AM CURED!! All kidding aside, he was great. He understood me. He was normal and didn’t use any mumbo jumbo, and he talked to me. There was none of this “hmmm, when you were 2, your father was angry at you…..” He really knew how I felt, and he also figured out a way to help that fit who I was. He was smart. I strongly recommend him. (from Citysearch)

ronnieshaef

Brilliant.

August 21, 2012

I don’t want to exaggerate, but Dr. Schachter turned my life around. I was in a relationship that ended, and I couldn’t see any daylight. I was depressed and miserable. Dr. Schachter taught me how to look at things differently, and helped me find myself again. The thing I liked best about him is that he is smart, and he interacts. I saw another therapist before him, and all she did was sit there and want to talk about my childhood. He focused on how to solve the problem. He was really great. (from Citysearch)

chloeshaefer