Dr. Cecilia Dintino

Dr. Cecilia Dintino is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center and faculty at New York University’s Graduate Program in Drama Therapy.  For over 28 years, she has worked with clients using science-based methods and creative approaches to foster awareness, inspire change and deepen connection with self and others.

Cecilia grew up the oldest in a large family of funny people who love to tell stories, laugh and eat (among other things).  As a child she spent hours writing and directing plays, then coercing her siblings, friends and neighbors to participate in them.  She was a natural leader (although her siblings called her by other names).

After graduation from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in theatre, she moved to New York City where she took more acting classes, and told more stories.  Thinking she invented the idea of story and theatre as therapy, she soon discovered like-minded professionals and earned her masters degree in drama therapy from NYU.  She went on to use performance, improvisation and role-play to help clients tell their stories and effect change, working in various psychiatric hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and schools.

As time went on, she became more and more curious about psychology and its applications.  She went on to earn another Masters and a Doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Rutgers University.  She did her doctoral internship at Columbia University Medical Center and then worked there for fifteen years as both a clinical researcher and group therapy facilitator.  She is currently a supervisor with Columbia’s Women’s Program.  She also has a private practice and teaches and speaks publicly at many institutions and conferences.

In 2011, Cecilia co-founded Drama Lab, NYC, a therapeutic theatre company.  She was a founding partner of NYU’s As Performance Series, an educational program that investigates the use of theatre for healing.  In 2014 Cecilia received the North American Drama Therapy Association Performance Award.  She is on faculty with the Institute for Developmental Transformations, an international school in te practice of improvisation for self-discovery and change.  Most recently, she has earned certification in Positive Psychology from the Flourishing Center, NYC>

Her various practices have included work with populations ranging from veterans suffering from PTSD, the elderly, substance abusers, individuals diagnosed with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder.  She is expert in cognitive behavior therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, psychodynamic therapy, group therapy and creative arts therapy. 

Cecilia’s work with clients has pushed her to keep growing and evolving herself.  “A change agent has to be one who can change,” She reminds herself regularly.

What felt like suddenly, she found herself a women in her 50s.  Her body had changed, and the concrete notion of impermanence became something hard to ignore.  Looking to the experts for answers and tools, she noticed the maps and guiding direction for growth at this stage of life were less obvious.  Actually there were none.  She started talking to her friends and colleagues over 50, lo and behold, nobody had a map and everyone was uncertain about next steps.  She was lamenting the state of middle-age mystery with her best friend of 40 years, Hannah Starobin.  Hannah suggested that they look at the situation differently.  “If there is no map, then we are free to make one up,” she said.

Light bulb moment.

So they both decided to get even more creative and innovate new ways of being and thinking for women of a certain age.  For the past three years, Cecilia has studied, given lectures and facilitated workshops about ways to repurpose life over 50.  Together with Hannah, she formed Twisting the Plot LLC: Solutions for Women over 50. 

Cecilia Dintino writes for Huffington Post, Medium, Arts Plus Magazine, A Women’s Thing, Athena Speaks and Art+Marketing.

Hannah and Cecilia are working on a Twisting the Plot Podcast and hope to publish their book:  Twisting The Plot:  How to Repurpose Your Life over 50, by 2019.

Hannah Starobin, LCSW

Hannah Murray Starobin’s story unfolds as any good novel, with many twists and turns.  The youngest of three daughters to Pulitzer Prize Winning writer, Donald M. Murray and his wife Minnie Mae her family was steeped in art, music, and story. Hannah’s family life was a weave of the usual struggles, lots of humor, and tragedy. The summer after Hannah graduated high school her 20-year-old sister Lee died suddenly, leaving her family devastated. Although reeling from the loss, Hannah threw herself into school and quickly found an outlet for her passion and creativity in the theater.  As a directing student, Hannah reveled in the exploration of story and character and how the disparate parts of a theater production come together.

After graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Theater and Communication she moved to New York City and spent ten years engrossed in the theater working on and off Broadway. Hannah met Michael Starobin while playing poker backstage at the Public Theater, during a production of La Boheme. Michael and Hannah married three years later.

In 1991, Hannah left the theater to be a full-time Mom to her wonderful sons Joshua and Sam but once they were settled in school she found a desire to see her story unfold in a new way. Hannah began volunteering at The Other Place in Manhattan, a program for homeless mentally ill adults, and instantly felt at home. She found a place where she could use her creativity, curiosity and stage managing skills. But Hannah soon realized that she needed a clinical education to understand how to make a difference in the lives of the clients. Within weeks, Hannah was applying to graduate school, and in 2001 earned a Masters in Social Work from Fordham University.

Upon graduation, she began working at New York Presbyterian Hospital on a specialized unit treating people with psychotic disorders.  While at NYPH, Hannah used her unique combination of clinical skills and creativity to develop a protocol for helping patients with severe thought disorders communicate. Hannah received multiple awards for her care and dedication to patients and families as well as for her ongoing commitment to staff education.  She participated in a variety of research projects to improve treatment and has been sought after both as a speaker and trainer for staff working with patients struggling with psychotic disorders.

After ten terrific years at NYPH she felt it was time to take her expertise in social learning, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy and her creative arts training and focus on her private psychotherapy practice.  

Hannah’s story continued to unfold in 2015 as she faced physical changes, an empty nest, and a sense that life was shifting. Hannah found herself longing to talk to her parents; Had they dreaded the quiet? Were they excited about a new beginning? Then she remembered a piece her Dad wrote for the Boston Globe titled “Life with Hannah’s Rubber Tree” about her move to New York City and his own thoughts about facing the empty nest. Hannah began to re-read all twenty years of her Dad’s observations on aging.

It was this time when Hannah shared her concerns and uncertainty about what lay ahead with Cecilia. Friends for almost 40 years, they began talk about what it meant to be a woman over 50. They talking to other women about their experiences. They began to read, to research and to write and Twisting The Plot: Solutions for Women Over 50 was born.

Hannah is currently writing a book based on her father’s autobiographical column titled Over 60 (later changed to Then and Now) that was published in The Boston Globe covering the last 20 years of his life.  

Cecilia and Hannah are currently working on a Twisting The Plot podcast and are hoping to publish their book: Twisting The Plot: How to Repurpose Your Life After 50, in 2019.