Meet Hafina Allen
Are You a High-Achiever
Who's Quietly Exhausted?
You are good at holding things together. That probably goes without saying, because people like you usually are. But holding things together is not the same as actually feeling well, and at some point the gap between those two things becomes hard to ignore.
If you are here, something has shifted. Maybe the anxiety has gotten louder. Maybe sleep has become a nightly battle. Maybe you have been managing low mood for long enough that you have quietly stopped expecting anything different. Whatever brought you to this page, I am glad you are here. And I would like to help.
A Little About Me
I am Hafina Allen, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-R) and Board-Certified Telemental Health Provider (BC-TMH). I have more than 20 years of experience working with adults navigating anxiety, depression, insomnia, OCD, panic disorder and the particular kind of exhaustion that comes from holding yourself to a very high standard for a very long time.
I work entirely via telehealth, which I believe in both practically and clinically. The BC-TMH credential reflects specialized training in best practices for delivering care through technology and I have contributed to that field directly as a subject matter expert helping develop the TeleMental Health certification exam with the Center for Credentialing and Education. For my clients, telehealth means access to specialized care without a commute, and sessions that fit into a real life. I work with adults across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, North Dakota and New Hampshire.
Why I Do This Work
I did not start my career in therapy. I spent years in event planning, where I had a front-row seat to some of the biggest moments in my clients’ lives. What I kept finding myself drawn to was not the logistics but the human experience of it, the stress, the transitions, the way people showed up for things that mattered.
After 9/11, when the events industry slowed, I took a role that my parents, both academics with PhDs in psychology, had suggested: Clinical Coordinator at the Brain Injury Research Center at Mount Sinai Hospital. I helped run groups for survivors of traumatic brain injuries and assisted with intake assessments for a study incorporating CBT skills into group treatment. What I discovered there changed my direction entirely. I started to understand how injury and illness affect entire family systems, not just the person who is injured. I saw what it looked like when someone finally had the right tools to work with their own mind. And I saw that doing this work properly, on my own license, would require going back to school.
I completed my Master of Social Work at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work, studying part-time while working for two years and then leaving my job to focus on my final year. I chose to specialize initially in severe and persistent mental illness, an underserved population that I remain deeply committed to, before building a practice focused on the anxiety, mood and sleep concerns I see most often in adults today.
Over more than two decades I have worked in research, psychiatric emergency rooms, inpatient behavioral health units, mental health shelters, clinics and assisted living facilities alongside my private practice. I have served as Metropolitan Chapter and State Membership Chair for the New York State Society for Clinical Social Work and as State VP. That breadth has given me a genuine respect for how differently people experience the same challenges, and for the courage it takes to ask for help.
What I specialize in:
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Anxiety & perfectionism
For the overthinker who can't quiet their mind, and the person whose standards have become quietly exhausting. CBT helps you identify what's driving the anxiety and build a different relationship with it.
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Depression & low mood
When motivation is gone, joy feels out of reach, and you're going through the motions without knowing why. Therapy won't just help you cope it will help you actually feel better.
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Insomnia & sleep problems
When your body is exhausted but your mind won't stop. CBT-I is the gold-standard, non-medication treatment for chronic insomnia, recommended above sleep medication by the American College of Physicians.
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OCD
When the doubt won't let go no matter how much you reason with it. I specialize in Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT), an evidence-based approach that targets the reasoning behind the obsession, not just the anxiety it creates.
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Panic disorder
When panic attacks have started to shape your world, what you avoid, where you won't go, what you brace for. CBT helps you understand the cycle and break it, systematically.
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Phobias
Whether it’s a fear of flying, needles, driving or something else entirely, I use exposure-based therapy to help you stop avoiding and start living without the fear calling the shots.
My Approach
I believe that my clients are the experts on their own lives. They have lived with themselves their entire lives. I may be the expert in a given modality, but they are the expert on their own experience. That is why the work has to be collaborative. I can give you tools, but together we figure out how you can best use them in the context of your actual life.
My approach is primarily Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), with specialized training in CBT-I for insomnia and i-CBT for OCD. These are evidence-based approaches, and I use them because the research supports them and because I have seen them work. I will not promise that therapy is comfortable. But I can promise that we will focus on real, practical change, not just a space to talk.
I also bring something to this work that goes beyond training. In college and early adulthood I struggled with panic disorder and anxiety. CBT is what helped me. I still experience anxiety at times, as most people do, but my relationship with it has changed. I no longer try to eliminate it. I pay attention to what it is telling me. That shift, from fighting anxiety to understanding it, is at the heart of what I help clients build.
Who I Work With
My clients tend to be adults who hold themselves to a high standard and are quietly struggling under the weight of it. They are often managing anxiety, depression, insomnia or some combination of all three. They appear fine to the people around them. They are not fine.
They are looking for a therapist who is warm but also direct and practical, someone who will give them real tools and real feedback rather than just a space to process. They are ready to do the work. They just need the right support to do it.
They are located in NY, NJ, FL, CT, IL, NH, or ND
Outside the Office
When I'm not working, you'll likely find me in my garden, doting on my pets, or settled into a cozy Italian restaurant. I'll never turn down a trip to the Met, where I can get lost for hours. And for my fellow book lovers, the non-negotiable when we bought our home was enough room for all our books. I'm also always planning my next retreat to the Adirondacks.
As for the pets: three chinchillas, a free-roaming house rabbit and a cat. Never a dull moment.
Ready When You Are
You don't have to have it all figured out before reaching out. A free 15-minute consultation is just a conversation, no pressure, no commitment. We'll talk briefly about what's going on and whether working together feels like the right fit.
Ready when you are.
Not sure where to start? You don't have to know.
A free 15-minute consultation is a low-pressure way to talk through what's going on and figure out the right fit together.
Therapy - Brooklyn, NY
Telehealth · NY · NJ · FL · CT · IL · ND · NH
26 Court Street, Suite 1001, Brooklyn, NY 11242