OVERVIEW
Todd Essig is a NYC-based psychologist and psychoanalyst well-known for being a pioneer in the creative uses of mental health technologies. In addition to his full-time clinical practice he publishes, lectures, and consults internationally on creating best practices for making sure technology serves human purposes. His primary academic affiliations are Faculty and Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at the William Alanson White Institute (WAWI) in New York City and Adjunct Clinical Professor at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis.

He is a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) where he served on the Task Force on Distance Training and the Task Force on Training in Contemporary Times where he co-authored both task force ,reports. As a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) he co-chaired their COVID-19 Response team. Recently, and the current center of his non-clinical professional life, he founded and currently co-chairs APsA's Council on Artificial Intelligence.

He's also a member of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (Division 39 of the APA), the NY State Psychological Association( NYSPA) where he was recently named a Distinguished Fellow, and the Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN) where he is an inaugural member of their Advisory Board.

His teaching includes both institute classes for candidates and workshops and lectures at numerous institutes and societies, both here in the USA as well as in Japan, Canada, and England. 

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When the pandemic first began in March 2020 the APsaA administration invited him to form and co-chair a team to lead its response to the Covid-19 crisis. They rapidly developed resources to help colleagues with the forced transition from traditional in-person clinical work to working all online. As the pandemic progressed their focus evolved from the challenges of the forced transition to encompass the challenges of an enduring pandemic. They both developed didactic materials and created a network of clinician support groups, all designed to help with the stresses of providing ongoing care during the crisis. For these efforts he was awarded APsaA's Distinguished Service Award. His previous involvement with disaster mental health work was serving on the Board, eventually becoming Board Chair, of the New York Disaster Counseling Coalition (NYDCC), a non-profit formed in the weeks after 9/11 to provide free mental and behavioral healthcare for first responders and their families. 

An abiding interest throughout his career has been trying to describe and understand how emerging technologies influence our experience of ourselves and our relationships. While still a candidate in psychoanalytic training at WAWI he created The Psychoanalytic Connection, a service provider and early (too early!) social media network for his fellow members of the psychoanalytic community. It operated from 1993 until 2009. Among other achievements, along the way it provided the very first online psychoanalytic continuing education course, became the Internet "home" to over 500 colleagues, and supported multiple special interest listservs which reached over 7000 unique subscribers.

For more information on his clinical work and his writings  please see the Services and Writings sections of this website.