About Me

Since the recent wave of violence and the ongoing pandemic, I have been spending a significant amount of time thinking about the general unrest in our midst.  We can all use support right now. If you are an empath like me then you know that the best formula for living your best life is to heal yourself. I learned this early on and it has become my purpose for living. Family and friends cannot always help you get through the challenges of a pandemic or massive waves of violence in our schools and neighborhoods; a good therapist can. A truth I will forever stand by. So becoming a psychologist felt like my calling. Working as a psychologist does not feel like a job. Working alongside friends and colleagues who also know the power of healing is a remarkable feeling. But the best thing about working as a mental health expert is my clients. Weaving tools into a stranger's life, watching it transform their lives, is a rush for me. When I watch the transformation weave itself into the fabric of their whole world, it is a remarkably rewarding feeling. Sometimes a client will come back to work through some other issue or just to say hello, and I get to see up close how he or she has grown. The relationships built over time teach me time and again about the power of healthy human connections.

For 30 years, I have maintained a therapy practice in Montclair Center. I specialize in treating a broad spectrum of individuals, couples, groups and families. Clients typically come to therapy emotionally and spiritually broken. I help them bridge the gulf between who they feel they are and who they yearn to be. With the right tools and a safe, positive, nurturing, empathic environment, I believe that we all can improve our lives.

I have presented at national conferences and to general audiences on many of my areas of specialization.

I also provide tele-health, healing groups, consultation and psychological testing.

After completing my doctorate in clinical psychology at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, I completed a fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University Medical School. Following my fellowship, I worked in the Department of Epidemiology at Yale as a research assistant studying help seeking behavior by gender, class, citizenship, economics, and via social and economic inequities that impact health, disease and access. I have been licensed by the Board of Psychological Examiners in the states of New Jersey and New York since the early 1990s.

Prior affiliations include the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Rutgers Medical School.

Past President: New Jersey Association of Black Psychologists

Sustaining Member: New Jersey Psychological Association

Member: American Psychological Association

Education:
Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology-Rutgers University - Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

Yale University School of Medicine - Fellow in Clinical Psychology


Licenses:
New Jersey License # 2821
New York License # 10862

Dr. Charlena Sears
(973) 755-1882

Montclair Center
Psychotherapy

460 Bloomfield Ave
Suite 209
Montclair , NJ 07042
[email protected]

Dr. Sears provides counseling and psychotherapy for clients of all ages from a variety of backgrounds and intersections.
Specialty areas include anxiety, depression, stress, trauma and messy life transitions.

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Proudly serving Montclair, New York, Livingston, The Oranges, Maplewood, Bloomfield, The Caldwells, Newark, Verona, Bergen County, Union County, Passaic County, and their surrounding communities.