I am Jack Szary, LMHC-D, a licensed mental health counselor and co-owner of Rhythm Wellness Mental Health Counseling, a virtual practice available to adults anywhere in New York State.

My graduate degree in counseling is from New York University, and I completed formal dialectical behavior therapy training. Before private practice, I spent years in foster care and homeless services, where the standard for good work was whether something changed for the person in front of me. That standard came with me.

The clients I see are usually established professionals. Attorneys, physicians, founders, people in finance and technology, and the ones their families and teams depend on. What they bring me tends to look like anxiety that no longer responds to preparation, exhaustion that outlasts every attempt at rest, perfectionism that has stopped producing results and started producing paralysis, and a private sense of not measuring up that has nothing to do with their actual record.

My primary approaches are acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and DBT skills training. I also draw on Stoic philosophy, which resonates with clients who want a durable framework rather than a set of coping tips. Areas of focus include anxiety therapy, social anxiety, work stress and depletion, self-esteem, life transitions, career and identity questions, depression, and men's mental health.

Approach to Therapy

Two things distinguish how I work. The first is that I am transparent about method. I tell you what framework we are using, what it is designed to do, and how we will know whether it is working. Clients who reason for a living tend to disengage when therapy feels like something happening to them. When you understand the mechanism, you can participate in it, and you can use it when I am not in the room. The second is that I am direct. I will reflect back what I observe, including the patterns you have organized your life around not looking at. That is not bluntness for its own sake. It is that you have almost certainly been surrounded by people who benefit from your overfunctioning and have no incentive to name it. Part of what you are paying for is someone with no stake in you staying the same. Practically, this means sessions have shape. We work on the mechanism sustaining the problem rather than reviewing the week's events. If avoidance is the engine, we build tolerance for what you are avoiding. If a critical internal voice is running things, we examine what it is protecting and reduce its authority. Most sessions end with something concrete to carry into the week, because skills only transfer when they are practiced under real conditions. I am also candid about fit. If what you need falls outside what I do well, I will say so early and help you find a better match. That honesty is part of the treatment, not a disclaimer attached to it.