KATHY KOENIG, APRN
Kathy Koenig, MSN, APRN
With over 30 years of experience as a clinical nurse specialist in psychiatry and mental health, Kathy is committed to providing compassionate and thoughtful mental health care to her patients. Throughout her career, Kathy has had the privilege of working with diverse populations, including children, adolescents, and adults of various cultures and ethnicities, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. This breadth of experience has enriched her understanding of the complexities and challenges that each individual may face.
Kathy's current focus is on working with adults in intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy. This modality allows the patient the opportunity to identify patterns in thinking, feeling, and acting that perhaps complicate their lives in unwanted ways. As a candidate in Studies in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at the Western New England Psychoanalytic Institute and Society, Kathy is continuing her education and training in order to expand her expertise and refine her work with her patients.
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Kathy graduated from St. Anselm College and Yale University School of Nursing. Prior to entering into private practice, Kathy worked in many diverse psychiatric environments including the Yale Child Study Center, the Clifford Beers Clinic, Atlantic Health Services, Community Health Care Plan, and the Veteran's Administration Medical Center in West Haven, CT. Prior to moving to the New Haven area, Kathy worked at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, the Human Resource Institute, and Beth Israel Hospital, all in greater Boston.
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At the Yale Child Study Center, Kathy participated in a number of clinical and research endeavors over the years. She developed a free social and recreational program for girls and women with autism spectrum disorders, SELF (Socialize, Experience, Learn, and have Fun), designed to help participants enjoy time together. The program fostered a sense of belonging and empowerment for these girls and young women.
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In 2012, Kathy published Practical Social Skills for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Designing Child Specific Interventions. The book provided practical information for professionals seeking evidence-based strategies for helping children and teens with ASDs integrate newly learned skills into their social environment. The thrust of the volume was that children need to learn skills that are meaningful for the contexts they encounter - essentially that each set of intervention strategies must be customized to the child's particulars interests, family and school, that is, the strategies need to be child-specific.
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Kathy has been involved in research over the past 25 years as part of her role at the Yale Child Study Center, authoring more than 40 publications, and speaking at many conferences and workshops throughout the years, nationally and internationally. She is honored to be a reviewer for numerous professional journals as well as a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the National Honor Society for Nursing.
