New York City & Westchester County
WHO WE ARE
Dr. Michael L. Costa ("Dr. Mike")
Michael L. Costa, Psy.D., is the founder of Balanced Mind Psychology and a clinical psychologist specializing in children/adolescents, parenting, and young adults. He is a Certified Diplomat of the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies, and is a licensed psychologist in New York and Connecticut, as well as a certified school psychologist (NY). Dr. Costa is also a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, contributing to the training programs by providing seminars and clinical supervision to future child/adolescent psychologists and psychiatrists.
Dr. Costa has extensive experience providing evidence-based therapeutic interventions and neuropsychological assessments. He has developed expertise in providing Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies (CBTs) to individuals with anxiety and OCD, as well as those with emotional dysregulation and behavioral difficulties. Dr. Costa has gained experience in a variety of settings, including an outpatient psychiatry department, adolescent inpatient unit, day treatment/partial hospitalization program, behavioral health urgent care center, community clinic, college counseling center, child trauma clinic, and multiple public schools. In addition, he has provided clinical supervision on the implementation of CBT interventions to doctoral level psychology trainees in multiple settings.
He is passionate about providing treatment that is based on scientific research. As such, he has gained significant experience in the provision of individual and group therapy using evidence-based treatments, such as exposure therapy, exposure and response prevention (E/RP), Supportive Parenting of Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Pre-Adolescent Children (Child DBT), and DBT for Adolescents (DBT-A)-informed treatment. Dr. Costa provides Behavioral Parent Training (BPT), such as Parent Management Training (PMT), Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and the Incredible Years (IY) to address disruptive behavior in young children, as well as provides school-based behavioral consultation.
Balanced Mind Psychology is dedicated to providing tailored interventions that are individualized to each patient's specific area of difficulty. Dr. Costa utilizes diagnostic assessment in order to fully understand patients’ presenting problems in a way that directly informs his therapeutic approaches. He focuses on providing targeted treatment to meet each patient’s goals using a warm, flexible manner. He also has significant experience working with multidisciplinary teams in multiple settings, and as such, seeks to form collaborative relationships with psychiatrists or school staff.
Dr. Costa received his Doctor of Psychology and Master of Science degrees from St. John’s University, graduating summa cum laude. He completed three years of specialized training in CBT and DBT interventions for children and adolescents at Northwell Health Long Island Jewish Medical Center (Zucker Hillside Hospital and Cohen Children’s Medical Center), including an American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited clinical child psychology internship. Dr. Costa received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with Minors in Disaster Psychology and Sociology, from the Honors Program at the State University of New York at New Paltz, graduating magna cum laude.
CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING
Education