Dr. Palyo is a board-certified, child and adolescent psychiatrist working in private practice and as the Medical Director at Safe Horizon Counseling Center. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at New York Medical College; Immediate Past President of the New York Council on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (NYCCAP); co-chair of AACAP’s Bylaws Committee; and Executive Board Member to the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Palyo served as AACAP’s second congressional fellow from 2010-2011 working with Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and was the first Early Career Psychiatrist (ECP) Representative to the Assembly of Regional Organizations. Dr. Palyo trained at Emory University and University of Texas and completed his psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry residencies at St. Vincent’s Hospital/New York Medical College. He is currently a psychoanalytic candidate at NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Dexter is the Vice President of Mental Health Treatment at Safe Horizon. She has over 12 years of direct service experience and more than 16 years of experience as a social work administrator. In her eight-year tenure at Safe Horizon, Dr. Dexter established the Safe Horizon Counseling Center, Safe Horizon’s only outpatient mental health treatment facility, as a Center of Excellence specializing in the evidence-based, trauma-informed treatment of child and adult survivors of interpersonal violence.

Ms. Papamihalis is the Clinical Director at Safe Horizon’s Counseling Center, providing expert, evidence-based support to children and their caregivers following traumatic experiences. “We want to believe that children don’t remember the trauma that happened to them,” she says. “Unfortunately, we’re wrong. They did see. They did remember. They were impacted by it.”