Dr. Jay R. Goldman, DMD, MSW, to be Featured on Close-Up Talk Radio

Palm Beach Gardens, FL – On the surface it would appear dentistry and psychotherapy share very little in common, but in both cases the patient doesn’t want to be there. Both types of patients will typically resist addressing their problems until they can’t resist any longer. Thankfully, once they take that step, they can finally receive the help they truly need.

Dr. Jay R. Goldman is both a dentist and a licensed clinical social worker. Before transitioning into a new career as a psychotherapist, Dr. Goldman served as Clinical Director of the Orofacial and TMJ Pain Clinic at NYU’s College of Dentistry, Department of Continuing Education. As a dentist, Dr. Goldman specialized in chronic pain management.

“My success rate was about 75% for relieving chronic pain,” recalls Dr. Goldman, “but it jumped to 85% when our psychologist came on board. We worked together for 20 years. When I retired from the dental aspect of my career, I decided I wanted to do what he did, so I went back to school and became a clinical social worker.”

Today, Dr. Goldman treats patients for the emotional component of their chronic pain as well as issues related to their quality of life.

“In many cases, we can significantly reduce or eliminate the pain,” says Dr. Goldman, “Much of the time we work on improving their quality of life and improving their family’s quality of life. It makes a big impact.”

According to Dr. Goldman, research shows that the success of therapy is based 15 percent on the patient’s motivation, 15 percent on the therapist’s skill set, but 70 percent on the relationship that develops between the therapist and the patient. If a therapist can form a quality relationship with their patients based on trust, they can help make great changes in a patient’s life.

“The definition of compassion is to have sympathy for a person’s problem with a desire to fix it,” says Dr. Goldman. “So the first thing is to always meet the patient where they are emotionally to build trust. Building trust can be extremely challenging but it’s an absolute necessity in psychotherapy. If there’s no trust there’s no therapy taking place. For me it seems to come quite naturally.

“I’m proud that I’ve been able to help most of my patients eliminate, reduce or cope with their pain and improve their quality of life,” says Dr. Goldman. “I’ve had patients say, ‘Thanks for giving me back my life. Thanks for giving me back my husband or wife.’ How do you top that?”

Close-Up Talk Radio will feature Dr. Jay Goldman in a two-part interview with Doug Llewelyn on November 7th at 8pm EST and with Jim Masters on November 14th at 8pm EST.

Listen to the show www.blogtalkradio.com/closeuptalkradio. If you have a question for our guest, call (347) 996-3389.

For more information on Dr. Jay Goldman, visit www.jayrgoldman.com