Our Faculty
Toby Chuah Feinson, Director
In 30 years as an educator and NAAP and SMP certified individual and group psychoanalyst, GroupWorks Executive Director, Toby Chuah Feinson, PhD has trained hundreds of educators who were missing an important piece in their professional education: preparation for their role as group leaders in the classroom and in counseling groups.
In her work as founder of the Educators Training Program at the Center for the Advancement of Group Studies, as a consultant to the New Educators Support Team Project and the New York State Teachers Union, and as Director of Adventures in Teaching and Counseling, she discovered an essential truth; school life takes place in groups and the dynamics in these groups significantly effect education and the collaborative relationships central to learning.
Based on research showing how failure to attend to classroom group dynamics contributes to the violence and trauma that occur in school settings and contributes to the drop-out rate of educators and students alike, Dr. Feinson has developed the Co-Leadership and Educators’ First Projects to train teachers and counselors in school based group leadership and group dynamics, while providing direct services to at-risk unserved and underserved students in grades K-12.
Dr Feinson has received grants from AOL Time Warner and in collaboration with the American Group Psychotherapy Association and is in private practice working with children, adults, families and groups in New York City and Fair Lawn, N.J. She is licensed as clinical social worker in New York and New Jersey and as a psychoanalyst in New York.
Dr. Feinson is a noted educational consultant to the New York City and New Jersey public schools.