Welcome

My name is Subu Samarajiva, and I'm a Sri Lankan American therapist based in New York City, working with individual adults and couples in person at my Herald Square office in Manhattan and virtually across New York State.

Before I became a therapist, I got my engineering degree from Stanford and spent years working in tech as a product manager — at startups and public companies in San Francisco and Atlanta. I know firsthand what it's like to work in a results-only culture where slowing down feels like a liability. Eventually I left tech, but my high-achieving experiences shape how I listen when clients bring me the particular exhaustion that comes from pushing yourself to achieve perfection.

I hold a master's degree in Counseling Psychology from The Wright Institute in Berkeley. I work psychodynamically with individuals — exploring the patterns and histories that shape how you move through the world — bringing in Internal Family Systems (IFS) as well, and use Emotionally Focused Therapy with couples.

I'm also deeply committed to working with South Asian and Asian clients, immigrants, children of immigrants, and anyone who has spent their life moving between cultures. If the question "where are you really from?" stirs up more than you can easily answer, you will find a sense of being seen and understood talking to me. I've been asked that question my whole life. My life path has taken me through Ohio, Maryland, Sri Lanka, California, and Georgia before landing in New York, and that particular experience of in-betweenness is something I understand from the inside.

I'm the kind of person strangers end up telling their whole life story to on airplanes. I bring that same warmth to the therapy room — along with a genuine willingness to notice what you might be avoiding, name what I'm seeing, and stay right there with you in the hard parts.

Outside of the office, I'm exploring New York City with my two young children, working on ambitious sewing projects, and carving out time to work out.

I am a pre-licensed Mental Health Counselor (MHC-LP), practicing under the supervision of Lindsey Pratt, LMHC.