Lynn Somerstein

Yoga, music, dance and books kept me alive when I was growing up in Bayside Queens, trying to survive in a difficult and sometimes violent family. Now I am a therapist in private practice, the director of the Institute for Expressive Analysis, a Yoga teacher, a writer and editor. The thread holding these interests together is my need to help people know who they are so they can express themselves to their fullest potential.

I first found out about Yoga and psychoanalysis when I was in highschool; I started doing Yoga on the living room rug, a book propped up beside me. There were no Yoga studios where I lived–I didn’t even know there was such a thing. I didn’t know any psychoanalysts, either, although I did date a cute guy in college whose father was a psychologist.

That was fifty years ago; I’ve been a therapist for thirty years. I have a PhD in psychology and psychoanalysis and I am a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT). I study yoga at the Integral Yoga Institute, which is only a few blocks away from the psychoanalytic school I attended, NPAP. I have benefited from both practices.

Although I didn't marry that cute guy I met in Queens College, I married an even cuter guy and we've stayed married for over thirty years. We have two kids and four grandchildren.