Our Therapists
With three offices throughout New Jersey, IPG employs about thirty experienced and licensed therapists, including AASECT-certified Sex Therapists. This large variety of professionals enables IPG to match your unique needs with a therapist whose specialty can help you the most. We are very experienced in relationship counseling, family therapy, and working with children, from the very young through adolescence. We’re also internationally known for our work with the LGBTQ community, and have particular expertise working with transgender and gender non-conforming children and youth.
We have assembled a diverse staff, trained in a variety of treatment techniques. IPG therapists are trained in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Imago relationship counseling, Gottman couples counseling, objects relations theory, mindfulness meditation, family systems theory, Gestalt therapy, and psychodrama. Several of us are AASECT-certified sex therapists. Many of our therapists are trained in EMDR and we have several trained in play therapy for the younger children. Others have specialized training and experience with young children, adolescents, and young adults. In recent years we have also created an eating disorder wing within the practice, training and supervising several of our therapists to treat dozens of clients with eating disorders.
All of our therapists participate in group and individual supervision as part of their work at IPG, and all take part in bi-monthly in-service professional trainings given at the IPG offices. In this way we keep current, not only in the techniques listed above, but in the ethical requirements of our profession, applications of neuroscience to psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and other areas of knowledge that have a crucial impact on psychotherapy.
Our Directors
The IPG ship is steered jointly by Susan Menahem, LCSW, and Dr. Cory Nichols, PhD.
Susan is our Executive Clinical Director, and an IPG veteran, having first joined us in 2001 as a therapist. She assumed her current role in 2016, and now oversees the supervision and training of IPG’s dozens of therapists, organizes our in-services and in-house supervision sessions, oversees our clinical staff on a day-to-day basis, and much more. On top of all that, she also remains one of our regular therapists as well, maintaining a full caseload of clients herself, at both our Freehold and Highland Park offices.
Cory first worked for IPG designing web and marketing materials such as brochures, newsletters, online marketing campaigns, and content for our original website, back in the late 90s and early 2000s. After spending several years earning his MA and PhD from Princeton University, he partnered with Susan in 2017 to run the operational side of IPG as its Executive Business Director. As the son of our Founder Dr. Margaret Nichols and our previous Business Director Nancy Musgrave, he is doing his best to carry on his mothers’ legacy.
Susan and Cory have been officially in charge of IPG together since Dr. Margaret Nichols retired and sold the practice in August of 2018.
IPG Therapists
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Affiliated Therapists
Our Business Staff
Our excellent business staff assures that new clients are quickly matched to the appropriate therapists and scheduled for appointments. And our state-of-the-art IT infrastructure enables us to handle the financial and insurance sides of your therapy in a manner that maximizes efficiency, confidentiality, and consideration for your personal situation. The office staff handles everything from customer service to maintaining client accounts to coordinating daily operations in all the IPG offices so that everything runs smoothly. Our Operations Supervisor Art Manilio oversees all these operational aspects of IPG, with help from Office Administrator Lisa Cusumano, and our newest office staff member, Robert Uibelhoer. Our Business Director Cory Nichols supervises the office staff, as well as directly handling web and marketing initiatives, accounting, contracts, legal and HR matters, and all other business-related aspects of IPG.
Our Founder
Margaret Nichols, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and AASECT-certified sex therapist, is the Founder and former Clinical and Executive Director of the Institute for Personal Growth. She oversaw clinical supervision and training of all IPG therapists from our inception in 1983 until 2016. She also maintains a small practice, publishes regularly, and delivers lectures around the country. In addition to Dr. Nichols’ publications, many members of our therapy staff are well-known for their published writings in areas that include domestic violence, relationships, LGBTQ issues, kink, and polyamory.
