Cynthia Spellman, MD — board-certified psychiatrist · Online throughout New York & New Jersey

Emotional care for adults.

Time to be heard. Time to be known. Time to be well.

A small, deliberate practice built on time, discretion, and continuity. Dr. Cynthia Spellman cares for a limited number of adults who want a psychiatrist who actually knows them — and who is genuinely reachable when it matters. Sessions are held by secure video from anywhere in New York or New Jersey, with in-person visits available in Albany and Mountain Lakes.

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Private Practice
"Good psychiatric care takes time. Time to listen, to think, to know someone. I built this practice so that time would never be the thing in short supply."
— Cynthia Spellman, MD
90 min initial consultation
50 min ongoing sessions
Direct physician access
NY & NJ seen online in both states
01 A note on emotional care

We are born hardwired for emotions for a reason.

Emotions have an important job to do — helping us navigate life's challenges, alongside our moral compass and our spiritual faith, toward the choices that serve us best.

The work of this practice is not to silence emotions or manage them away, but to understand them. Anxiety, grief, anger, longing, joy — each carries information. When we listen well, they help us live well.

Care here is grounded in that view: thorough, unhurried, and respectful of the whole person. A small practice. Long appointments. A real relationship that develops over years, not in the margins of a billing form. When something changes in your life — a new stressor, a medication question, a difficult week — you reach Dr. Spellman directly, not a portal.

Notice, name, and choose.

You do not have to be unwell to belong here. Many patients are healthy, well-adjusted, capable people who have simply run into a crisis — a loss, a diagnosis, a marriage coming apart, a career upended, a child in trouble.

In a crisis, feeling arrives faster than thought. The urgent response is rarely the one you would have chosen with a clear head, and acting on it can cost you something that takes years to repair. Much of the work here is learning to put a deliberate pause in that sequence:

  1. Notice what you are feeling. The tightness in the chest, the heat in the face, the urge to walk out, send the message, or say the thing that cannot be taken back. Most of us skip this step entirely and move straight to reacting.
  2. Name the emotion accurately. Is it anger, or hurt wearing anger's clothes? Fear, grief, shame? A feeling named precisely loses much of its power to drive you, and it starts telling you what it actually wants.
  3. Choose what to do with it. Deliberately, and in line with what matters to you — rather than reacting on impulse and spending the following weeks managing the consequences.

This is a skill, not a temperament, and it can be learned at any age. With practice it becomes automatic, and it stays with you long after the crisis that brought you here has passed.

02 About Dr. Spellman
Dr. Cynthia Spellman, board-certified psychiatrist

Cynthia Spellman, MD

Decades of listening.

Dr. Cynthia Spellman is a board-certified adult psychiatrist with offices in New York and New Jersey. She has spent her career caring for adults navigating mood disorders, anxiety, life transitions, and the complex psychiatric questions that don't fit into a quarter-hour appointment.

Trained at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, Dr. Spellman has practiced across hospital and private settings. The concierge model is the culmination of that work — a commitment to the kind of unhurried, deeply considered care she has always believed her patients deserve.

Patients describe Dr. Spellman as kind, patient, and deeply present. Her years of experience are matched by a particular interest in emotions — what they are trying to tell us, and how, once understood, they can guide us toward better decisions and meaningful action. For patients who wish it, she is also comfortable working within their faith — supporting and drawing on it as part of the larger picture of healing.

  • MD — Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
  • Residency — Psychiatry, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, NYC
  • Board Certified — American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology
  • Licensed — New York  ·  New Jersey
03 The concierge model

What "concierge" actually means here.

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A limited number of patients

The practice maintains a limited number of patients at any given time, so that every patient receives the time and attention that good care requires.

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Unhurried sessions

Initial consultations are 90 minutes; follow-up sessions are 50 minutes. There is room for nuance, for context, and for the questions that only surface once the obvious ones have been answered.

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Direct access between visits

Patients reach Dr. Spellman directly — not a receptionist, not a triage line. Between-visit questions and concerns are part of how the practice works.

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Continuity that lasts

The same physician, year after year. Your history isn't reconstructed at every visit — it's known. That continuity is the foundation of everything else.

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Discretion and privacy

The practice operates outside of insurance panels. To protect patient privacy, clinical notes are handwritten and kept in a secure paper chart — never uploaded to an electronic record, cloud, or insurance database. Prescriptions are transmitted electronically as required by law.

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Coordination of care, if you want it

When other clinicians are involved — therapists, internists, specialists — Dr. Spellman is glad to communicate with them directly and treat the larger picture as part of her work, if that is what you'd like.

04 Online sessions

Seen from wherever you are.

Most patients are seen entirely by video, over a secure, HIPAA-compliant connection — from home, from the office, or from anywhere else in New York or New Jersey where you can close a door.

The same care, without the commute

The 90-minute initial consultation and the 50-minute follow-ups are the same conversations they would be in the office. What changes is what surrounds them: no travel, no waiting room, no half-day given up to a fifty-minute appointment.

Care that fits a real life

For adults with demanding work, family obligations, caregiving responsibilities, or limited mobility, meeting online is often what makes consistent, long-term psychiatric care possible at all.

Nothing else changes

Notes remain handwritten in a secure paper chart — never entered into an electronic record, cloud system, or insurance database. Between-visit questions still reach Dr. Spellman directly.

Where patients are seen — New York

Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Westchester, Rockland, Nassau, Suffolk, Albany, Saratoga, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, and throughout the Hudson Valley.

Where patients are seen — New Jersey

Morris, Essex, Bergen, Passaic, Union, Somerset, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Sussex, and Warren counties, and the rest of the state.

What you'll need

A private space, a reliable internet connection, and a phone, tablet, or computer with a camera. A secure link is sent before each appointment — there is no app to install and no account to create.

Because psychiatric licensure follows the patient's location, you will need to be physically present in New York or New Jersey at the time of your appointment. Patients who move between the two states are seen without interruption.

05 Areas of care

Emotional care for people 18 and older.

The practice serves adults across a range of concerns. Below are the areas of frequent focus — though good care rarely fits neatly into categories, and an initial consultation is the best way to determine fit.

Mood disorders

Depression, bipolar spectrum conditions, and the long-term management of recurrent mood difficulties.

Anxiety & panic

Generalized anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety, and the chronic worry that erodes quality of life.

Life transitions

Career inflection points, divorce, loss, parenthood, retirement — the moments when professional support helps most.

Trauma & PTSD

Recent and longstanding trauma, with careful attention to pacing, safety, and the right combination of treatments.

Stress & burnout

The cumulative weight of overwork, caregiving, and chronic pressure — and the toll it takes on body, mood, and clarity of thought.

Medication consultation

Dr. Spellman does not believe in throwing medication at problems. The goal is the opposite: helping patients do well on the smallest effective regimen — and being honest when medication isn't the right tool at all. Please note that this practice does not prescribe stimulant medications.

Psychotherapy

Integrated psychotherapy as part of psychiatric care — supportive and psychodynamic approaches.

06 Becoming a patient

How to begin.

  1. The initial consultation. A 90-minute telehealth appointment to take a full history, discuss your concerns in depth, and develop an initial sense of direction. Booked directly online.
  2. An ongoing plan. If we proceed together, we'll establish a rhythm of visits suited to your needs. Most patients continue entirely online from wherever they are in New York or New Jersey; in-person visits at the Albany or Mountain Lakes offices are available for those who prefer them.
  3. Care that continues between visits. You'll have direct contact with Dr. Spellman for questions, prescription matters, and the inevitable moments when something can't wait for the next appointment.
07 Inquire

Begin when you're ready.

If this practice feels like the right fit, the next step is straightforward: book an initial consultation directly online.

Book an appointment online →
New York

(518) 951-8582

6 Automation Lane #117
Albany, NY 12205

Online appointments available statewide.

New Jersey

(973) 216-2459

115 Rt 46 W, Building F
Mountain Lakes, NJ 07046

Online appointments available statewide.