About Jennifer Shapiro-Lee
Trauma therapist | EMDR specialist | Post‑Traumatic Growth advocate
Jennifer Shapiro-Lee
I am Jennifer Shapiro-Lee, MSW, LCSW-R, an EMDR-certified trauma therapist, corporate wellness speaker, and founder of JSL Mental Health Wellness. My work centers on post-traumatic growth, executive-level trauma treatment, and helping high-functioning individuals heal deeply and grow intentionally.
I help people grow through life’s hardest challenges and unlock their fullest potential. That sentence may sound simple, but it holds the essence of my life’s work and the throughline of my personal and professional journey.
I do not see people as beyond repair or defined solely by what has happened to them. I see people as carrying pain. Pain they carry privately, sometimes publicly, and often in ways they do not yet fully understand themselves. In my experience, that pain, even when it feels overwhelming or life-altering, does not have to be the end of the story. When it is met with honesty, support, and the right kind of clinical guidance, it can become the beginning of something stronger and more integrated.
I’ve Lived Two Lives
In 2004, my father died by suicide. He was the CEO of a large hospital system. I knew him as successful, respected, competent, kind, and deeply loved. I never saw him depressed, and I never saw it coming. His death divided my life into two distinct chapters: before and after.
For nearly three years, I lived in what I can only describe as a protective bubble. I went through the motions of my life and career while internally trying to make sense of something that felt unspeakable. I told colleagues my father had died of a heart attack because I did not yet have the language or strength to tell the truth. Grief rarely moves in straight lines. Instead, it circles back, resurfaces unexpectedly, and humbles you in its timing.
At the time of my father’s death, I was building a highly successful career in the fashion industry. I was managing teams, traveling internationally, generating millions in revenue, and operating on a clear upward trajectory. Before I was thirty, I had built and ran a multi‑million dollar business. From the outside, it looked like I had everything I had worked toward, but inside, I knew something else was calling me.
Three years after my father died, I made the decision to leave that career. I walked away from the salary, the title, the prestige, and the predictability, and I returned to graduate school at Columbia University to pursue my Master’s in Social Work and become a therapist. It was a decision I wrestled with over those three years, turning it over in my mind again and again while continuing to show up for the life I built. My father’s death did not create the calling, but it made it impossible for me to keep putting it off.
Training In The Hardest Places
I did not enter this profession lightly. I chose to train in environments that demanded rigor, steadiness, and depth. During graduate school, I worked in the psychiatric emergency room at NewYork‑Presbyterian Hospital, supporting individuals in acute and complex crises. I trained in the Traumatic Brain Injury Unit at NYU Hospital, where I worked with patients and families navigating life‑altering neurological events. Through an Employee Assistance Program, I provided therapy to hospital employees carrying stress, burnout, and personal struggles while serving others.
After earning my degree, I completed a postgraduate clinical program at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, where I trained behind a one‑way mirror with live supervision, working with families and couples while an experienced clinical team observed and guided the work as it unfolded. That level of training shaped my ability to see systems, dynamics, and patterns with clarity.
I pursued intensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) while working for many years in a DBT practice, learning to support high-risk and emotionally dysregulated clients with steadiness, structure, and clinical clarity. That experience strengthened my ability to remain grounded in the presence of intense emotion and complexity. I later deepened my work in mindfulness and meditation, completing my Mindfulness‑Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training at the New York Open Center and becoming a Certified Meditation and Mindfulness Instructor and Mindfulness in the Workplace Trainer through the McLean Meditation Institute. I pursued this training because I believe healing involves both cognitive understanding and nervous system regulation.
Eventually, I found EMDR
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) became the modality that most profoundly aligns with how I understand trauma and recovery. Trauma does not live solely in thoughts; it lives in the body and the nervous system. EMDR allows us to process experiences that feel frozen in time and shift deeply rooted negative beliefs that shape behavior, identity, how we show up in the world, and our sense of self. It is powerful, efficient, and transformative, particularly for high‑functioning individuals who value depth and effectiveness.
Today, as an EMDR‑certified therapist, I offer EMDR intensives designed for individuals who are ready to do meaningful work in a focused and accelerated format. Having trained in psychiatric emergency settings and intensive DBT programs, I am comfortable working with complexity, but I am equally passionate about helping high performers move from functioning to thriving.
The Businesswoman & The Therapist
Before I became a clinician, I was a business executive responsible for building revenue, managing teams, and delivering results in high‑pressure environments. I understand systems, operations, strategy, leadership stress, and the invisible burdens that high performers carry when others depend on them.
Many of the executives and C‑suite leaders I work with appear highly successful on the outside while privately navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, imposter syndrome, burnout, grief, or persistent negative beliefs about themselves. They are intelligent, driven, and accustomed to solving problems. They often tell themselves, “I’ll figure it out,” and for years they do, until they encounter something that cannot be solved through strategy alone.
Because I have lived in both worlds, I can sit in rooms with founders, CEOs, and senior leaders and genuinely understand the language and pressures. I understand the realities of navigating leadership, workplace challenges, public-facing roles, financial responsibility, and the pressure to keep performing while carrying personal pain privately. I do not separate leadership from healing. In fact, I believe the most impactful leaders are those who have done their inner work and integrated their experiences rather than outrun them.
My Values
Kindness
I meet people with care, compassion, and acceptance for where they are.
Genuineness
I believe in being honest, authentic, and aligned with what matters most.
Growth
I stay curious, keep learning, and believe people can continue moving toward their fullest potential.
Empathy
I know my way is not the only way, and I work to understand different perspectives and lived experiences.
Commitment
I am committed to my own learning and growth.
Open-Mindedness
I value differences, remain curious about what I do not know, and respect boundaries and safety.
Why This Work Matters
People come to me when they feel stuck despite their intelligence and accomplishments, when trauma continues to replay beneath the surface of success, when grief feels endless, or when they sense they are capable of more but cannot identify what is holding them back.
My role is to help them uncover and process what is unseen, to integrate what they have lived through, and move forward with more understanding, strength, and self-trust. I believe in pushing gently but firmly toward growth because I have seen how much can change when people are supported in doing this work honestly.
We cannot always choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we meet it, how we carry it, and what we allow it to become. I believe some of the most meaningful growth can emerge from the experiences that once felt impossible to carry.
We offer in-person and telehealth options for residents of NY state.
Weekend and evening hours are available. Please note, we are out-of-network treatment providers. Please check our FAQs for more information.
I would recommend Jennifer to anyone looking to improve on themselves and their situation, no matter what you’re going through. Jennifer is completely nonjudgmental and easy to talk to. I know I can tell her absolutely anything, and she’ll help me see it with a fresh perspective and empower me to help myself. She’s the best therapist I’ve ever worked with (and I’ve worked with A LOT).
– NY client
What I Believe
I believe kindness is a strength. I treat people with care, compassion, and acceptance for where they are, while also challenging them toward growth. I am non‑judgmental, but I am engaged and active in the work.
I believe genuineness matters. Staying in integrity with my highest truth is essential to how I practice and how I lead. Growth, for me, is ongoing focusing on my own therapy, coaching, and professional development because I believe we must practice what we teach.
Empathy requires recognizing that my way is not the only way. I remain open to diverse perspectives, cultures, and lived experiences, and I approach differences with curiosity rather than make assumptions.
Commitment means that if I am not the right resource for someone, I will help them find the right one. Healing is collaborative and multi‑faceted, and sometimes it involves integrating additional supports such as psychiatry, medical care, or holistic modalities.
Whether I’m speaking in front of a corporate audience, an executive leadership team, or working one on one with a client, I am not afraid to talk about what is uncomfortable, because connection and healing happen when truth is allowed into the room.
We cannot grow if we believe we already know everything.
The Practice Today
I founded JSL Mental Health Wellness in 2018 and built it into a boutique group practice grounded in excellence, discretion, and individualized care. Our team serves children, adolescents, adults, executives, couples, and families, with specialties that include trauma, anxiety, depression, grief, suicide‑related loss, life transitions, and high‑performance burnout.
My personal clinical focus includes EMDR and trauma intensives, work with high‑functioning executives and C‑suite leaders, post‑traumatic growth, complex grief, and career and identity transitions. In addition to therapy, I have developed more than twenty corporate wellness modules and have delivered workshops and keynote presentations on stress management, mental health awareness, resilience, emotional intelligence, boundaries, and post‑traumatic growth.
I am deeply interested in bridging therapy, executive leadership, and organizational culture because healing individuals has ripple effects across teams, companies, and communities.
Who I am outside the office
Outside of my professional roles, I am a mother, a partner, a friend, and a businesswoman who remains endlessly curious about life. I love to travel, hike, learn, and explore new ideas. A perfect day might include a long walk outdoors, coffee with friends, and trying a new restaurant with someone I love.
Having experienced profound loss, I am acutely aware that life is not guaranteed to be long, and I am intentional about living it fully both personally and professionally.
Ready To Get Started?
You don’t need to have everything figured out before reaching out.
Whether you’re looking for therapy, EMDR, executive coaching, or support for your organization, the first step is simply starting the conversation.