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Executive Alcohol Treatment in NYC

Private, individualized care for New York City executives, attorneys, physicians, and senior professionals whose drinking has begun to feel harder to control. Confidential telehealth across all five boroughs and Westchester. Dr. Arnold Washton, addiction psychologist.

A Different Kind of Treatment for NYC Professionals

If you are a partner, physician, executive, or senior professional in New York City and you have started to question your own drinking, you have probably already noticed that the obvious treatment options do not fit. Residential rehab programs require a 30-day disappearance that nobody at your level can justify. Standard outpatient clinics ask for in-person attendance several times a week. AA-based programs assume an identity you do not recognize and would prefer not to claim. The big telehealth platforms assign whoever happens to be on shift.

What NYC professionals actually need is what we do: a private, doctorate-level addiction psychologist who has spent 50 years working specifically with executives, attorneys, physicians, and finance professionals whose drinking pattern looks high-functioning on the outside but has stopped being reliably controllable on the inside. The work is one-on-one, conducted over secure telehealth, structured around your schedule, and built around the assumption that your career and reputation are not negotiable.

Most of our NYC patients have never set foot in our office. They reach us at (212) 944-8444 and meet with Dr. Washton over Zoom from their own office, apartment, or home in Connecticut or Westchester.

Who We Treat in the NYC Area

Finance & Wall Street

Managing directors, partners, traders, and senior bankers whose drinking pattern has been built into the job for years. The client dinners, the trading-floor wind-down, the deal celebrations. The pattern only became a problem when the off-switch stopped working reliably and decisions made under the influence began to have real consequences.

Law Firm Partners & Attorneys

Big-law partners, in-house counsel, and senior associates whose alcohol use is tied to firm culture, networking events, and the high-pressure rhythm of litigation and deal closings. State bar reporting requirements make confidentiality a non-negotiable, and the practice is built to respect that.

Physicians, Surgeons & Healthcare Leaders

Senior physicians and surgeons whose drinking pattern has begun to feel concerning, with the added layer of state medical board oversight that makes traditional treatment paths risky. We work with physicians across NYC's hospital systems and private practices in a way that protects their clinical license.

Executives in Tech, Media & Corporate Leadership

C-suite executives, founders, and senior leaders in NYC's tech and media sectors. The travel, the public visibility, the deal-celebration environments, and the pressure of running organizations all interact with alcohol use in patterns that benefit from clinical attention before consequences arrive.

The Pattern I See Most Often

Most of the executive and professional patients I treat do not fit the daily-drinker stereotype. They can go a week or two without alcohol and never miss it. They are not physically dependent and do not look "alcoholic" in any traditional sense. The problem shows up situationally: the client dinner, the conference bar, the deal celebration, the off-site retreat where the second night runs longer than the first.

In those settings, the off-switch fails. The person who set out to have one or two drinks finishes the evening at six or seven. By the tenth or twentieth time, what looked like an occasional excess is a pattern, and the pattern is doing real damage. The damage is rarely dramatic. It is the bad judgment with a junior colleague at a fundraiser. The off-color comment overheard by the wrong board member. The boundary violation that ends up in HR. The slow accumulation of incidents that, taken together, threaten a career that took thirty years to build.

For the full clinical breakdown of this pattern, see Heavy Drinking Among New York City Executives and Professionals.

How the Treatment Works

The Washton Group provides private, individualized treatment for New York City executives and professionals whose alcohol or substance use has begun to feel harder to control than it should. The practice is built for high-functioning patients who require privacy, scheduling flexibility, and a treatment model that respects the realities of demanding professional life. There are no public groups. There is no fixed protocol. There is no requirement to adopt a label that does not fit.

Treatment is structured around your own goals. That may mean learning to moderate drinking with structure and accountability. It may mean a defined period of abstinence to reset. It may mean moving toward longer-term abstinence as the clinical picture clarifies. The work focuses on understanding your own pattern, restoring reliable control, and addressing the underlying drivers that fuel problematic use, including stress, sleep, anxiety, and the social architecture of the work itself.

Sessions are conducted by Dr. Arnold Washton over secure telehealth in nearly all cases, which protects confidentiality and accommodates schedules that do not permit predictable in-person appointments. For patients who specifically prefer in-person work, the Princeton, NJ office is available by appointment.

Dr. Arnold Washton, Clinical Psychologist and Addiction Specialist

Dr. Arnold Washton

Clinical Psychologist · Addiction Treatment Specialist · 50+ Years of Practice

Dr. Washton has practiced addiction psychology for more than five decades. Trained at NYU and a former member of the NYU School of Medicine faculty, he founded the Washton Institute and has worked with executives, attorneys, physicians, and senior professionals throughout his career. He has authored nine books on addiction treatment, including the Guilford Press clinician's guide that is used as a training text in the field, and has consulted to the White House, the FDA, and the U.S. Senate on substance use policy.

He is licensed to practice psychology in New York and New Jersey, authorized for telepsychology in most PSYPACT states, and listed in the Psychology Today directory for both Manhattan and Princeton. NYC patients reach him directly at (212) 944-8444.

"The clinical question I focus on is not whether you fit a category. It is whether you can reliably regulate intake once drinking begins. That is the question worth answering."

More for NYC Executives and Professionals

Heavy Drinking Among NYC Executives and Professionals

The full clinical breakdown of the episodic binge pattern, the "not that bad" trap, and what individualized treatment looks like.

Executive & Professional Treatment Overview

The broader treatment philosophy and approach for high-functioning professionals across all industries.

Heavy Drinker vs. Alcoholic

Why the label matters less than the pattern, and how to read your own drinking honestly.

Alcohol Harm Reduction

The clinical case for reducing drinking-related harm without requiring abstinence as the starting goal.

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