César A. Alfonso MD
Psychiatry
About César Alfonso MD
César Alfonso, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at Universitas Indonesia in Jakarta and Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. He also teaches at New York Medical College and Northwell Health. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, Academy of Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry, and of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Education
B.S. Yale University
M.D. New York Medical College
Clinical Expertise
Dr. Alfonso's areas of clinical interest and expertise include the treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders in persons with concomitant medical illness, complicated bereavement, posttraumatic stress disorder, suicide prevention, helping individuals and couples through relationship crises, coordinating treatment of addiction, helping persons in exogamous relationships navigate cultural differences, working with international college and graduate students with difficulties adjusting to academic and developmental demands, and the treatment of artists and creative individuals with work inhibition. His treatment approach combines medication treatment with psychodynamic, supportive and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.
How Does
Psychotherapy Work?
Neuroimaging findings corroborate that structural changes (neural circuits, size and volume of specific brain areas) and changes in metabolic rate in the brain occur as a result of psychotherapy. With advances in neuroscience we now understand that psychotherapy is a biological treatment. As with medication treatments, there is a dose effect with psychotherapy. Most individuals with unstable mood and a history of traumatic life events obtain greater benefit from long-term treatments. Episodic time-limited psychotherapy could be beneficial when a commitment to long-term therapy is not possible.
Psychiatric Consultations
Although Dr. Alfonso offers psychotherapy treatment to all patients, he also provides expert medication management for individuals with treatment-resistant depressive and anxiety disorders.
Psychiatric consultations usually take place when persons are experiencing great turmoil. Symptomatic improvement occurs once crises are averted and stressors dealt with creatively and collaboratively. After a successful initial phase of treatment many patients decide to continue some form of psychotherapy, with or without adjunctive medication treatments, to dedicate additional time and effort to personal growth and efficient achievement of educational, professional and relationship goals.
Publications
Advances in Psychodynamic Psychiatry
Alfonso CA, Downey JI, Friedman RC (2018)
New York, London: Guilford Press.
Bringing together important articles from Psychodynamic Psychiatry, this volume shows how contemporary practitioners are using a multidimensional biopsychosocial approach to increase the robustness of clinical research and the effectiveness of patient care.
Contact
Hours:
By appointment only
251 Central Park West Suite 1A, New York, NY 10024, USA
Mobile: (917) 496-7614
Email: cesaralfonso@mac.com
