James loves being asked by another person to join with them in a process of healing and change. The idea of someone putting their trust in him to work collaboratively on something important in their life, and putting their collective minds and emotions together to find a meaningful change or area of growth, is always exciting for him. Dr. Marinchak specializes in using cognitive behavioral therapeutic approaches in the treatment of adult and adolescent anxiety, OCD, and trauma. His interests include exposure-based therapies for trauma and anxiety, as well as mindfulness-based approaches for emotion regulation and distress tolerance.

Originally from Philadelphia, he earned his BA from Loyola University in Maryland, and graduated from the Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. Upon graduation, James completed his internship at the Greater Hartford Clinical Psychology Consortium and was a Clinical Health Psychology Fellow in the Connecticut VA Health Psychology Postdoctoral Program. He has also completed specialized national training in Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD, as well as Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD. James is also certified in ExRP, PE, and CBT.

James has always loved golf—when he was younger, he was especially devoted (though not very talented!). More recently he started a family and now that he has two young children, he doesn’t find as much time these days to go out and play. However, he is still a believer that the mental challenges of golf, such as accepting one’s imperfections, and seeing each shot as unique in order to leave bad shots in the past, are highly applicable to the challenges we all face in our day-to-day lives. Golf has taught him to be more mindful, non-judgmental, and accepting of himself as a person, and he uses those lessons in his clinical work with clients.