I am a licensed psychologist in private practice. I hold a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the State University of New York (at Buffalo). I have trained and worked in a variety of clinical settings, which include: psychiatric hospitals, university counseling center, county jails, community mental health centers, family medical practice, cancer hospital, veterans' hospitals, pain clinics, and private practice.

I offer an eclectic treatment approach that consists of: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Meta-Cognitive Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectic and Behavioral Therapy, Logotherapy, Mindfulness-based Therapy, Brief-Dynamic Therapy, Motivational Interviewing Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR).

Education:

State University of New York at Buffalo: Ph.D., Counseling Psychology
University of Central Arkansas: M.S., Counseling Psychology
Moscow State Pedagogical University: B.A., Teaching English as Second Language

Professional Affiliations

Member of the American Psychological Association (APA)
Member of the Greater Pittsburgh Psychological Association (GPPA)
Member of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association (PPA)

Military Service

Independent Special Purpose Motorized Rifle Brigade (OMSBON) of the Ministry of Interior of the Soviet Union (1987-1989)

Publications:

Somov, P. G. (2008)
Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating, One Meal at a Time. In stores November 2008, New Harbinger Publications.

Somov, P. G. (2008)
A Psychodrama Group for Substance Use Relapse Prevention Training.
The Arts in Psychotherapy, 38, 151-161.

Somov, P.G. (2007).
Meaning of Life Group: Group Application of Logotherapy for Substance Use Treatment.
Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 32 (4), 316 - 345.

Somov, P. & Somova, M. (2003)
Recovery Equation: Motivational Enhancement, Choice Awareness, Use Prevention: an Innovative Clinical Curriculum for Substance Use Treatment. Imprint Books, ISBN:

Somov, P.G. (2000)
Time Perception as a Measure of Pain Intensity and Pain Type. Journal of Back & Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, 14 (3), 111-121.

Somova, M. J., Somov, P.G., Lawrence, J. L., & Frantz, T. T. (2000).
Factors associated with length of stay in a mid-sized, urban hospice. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, 17(2), 99-106.

 

More (on a more light-hearted note):

 

A few words about myself, huh? Well, in describing our Selves we would do well to first ponder:

a) if there are any actual Selves to describe in the first place (that's the "buddhist" in me, if, in fact, there is enough of a "me" to be "buddhist");

b) if the presumed Self is permanent enough to be described in a manner that is accurate enough to apply from one moment to another (that's the "buddhist" in me, blah, blah, blah - see the caveat above);

c) if, in fact, we are capable of objectively describing the subjective (that's the "bu.. - I bet you are getting the point, if, in fact, there is enough permanence to your "you" to get the impermanence of my "me" as I try to describe my Self); and

d) if it is possible to describe a river (if this non-sequitor happened to "dam up" your "mind-flow," perhaps, you have just glimpsed a bit of a "you" and... perhaps, a bit of a "me"... since the "buddhist" in "me" seems to think that there really might not that much of a difference between these two).

Thank you for your tolerant curiosity.

 

More (on an even less serious note):

 

Pavel Somov isn’t “Pavel Somov”

Whereas, one could argue, Pavel Somov is real, “Pavel Somov” isn’t real since “Pavel Somov” is just a name. What’s real is real, what’s real is nameless, and no name-word can name the nameless… But “nameless” is also a name-word that names nothing real. And so is the name-word “real” – it too names nothing real. And so is the word “is.”

What can I say about the author of this statement? What facts, if the fact of the matter is that there are no facts?! The mind that wrote down these thoughts has ceased to exist: you can name the river-bed but you can’t name the river. Similarly vanished is the mind that has just written “similarly vanished is the mind that has just written.” And similarly vanishing is your mind, my dear Reader, while you are reading this recursive example of the Writer’s self-narrative in which the Self narrates its own story. Mind, panicked with the thought of its own non-existence, reassures itself: “but I am.” While flowing and vanishing as it does…

The word “auto” means “Self” and the word “author” – in its original meaning stemming from the Latin “auctor” – means one who causes to grow, an enlarger, an increaser. Thus, any auto-biography is, on one hand, Self-aggrandizement. At the same time an auto-biography is an author’s attempt to objectively describe the author’s subjective experience. As such, an auto-biography is a form of self-objectification, i.e. a form Self-deflation.

Consciousness is like a Mobius strip: it’s non-orientable. Imagine that you begin to write your autobiography on one side of this Mobius Strip of Consciousness. As you keep writing the end of your narrative becomes the beginning of your narrative.

The author becomes his own fiction. An author of an auto-biography is both the Subject and the Object of his own writing.

I am everything and nothing because Everything is Nothing. I am and I am not. Just because I think “I think, therefore, I am,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that I am. And just because I think “I am and I am not,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that I am and I am not. It’s exactly because of this that there cannot be any objective way to express the subjective. A limerick says it all:

 

A mathematician confided

That a Möbius band is one-sided,

And you'll get quite a laugh,

If you cut one in half,

For it stays in one piece when divided (from Michelle. Emmer, 1980, Leonard, 13(2))

 

So does Consciousness: in its indivisibility, it is indescribable. As such, any auto-biographical fact is auto-biographical fiction, and any attempt to objectify the subjective is an attempt to divide one in half. Unlike in math, the One is indivisible.

As to the mind that’s writing this right now… Sherpa calls: it’s time for another poetic assent into the Abyss of Self.