Robert M. Greenfield, PhD was born on March 5, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York. He passed away on April 21, 2018. He was an accomplished musician studying drums and percussion at The Juilliard School in Manhattan. After graduation, he spent several years in the music industry performing in the orchestra on Broadway and in road show productions of “A Chorus Line” and “La Cage Aux Folles” among others.
Rob later pursued his interests in psychotherapy and social work studies and earned a BSW from Hunter College, and later an MSW and finally a PhD in clinical social work from New York University. He worked as a psychotherapist at Morris Heights Family Health Center in the Bronx, NY. He later worked as a psychotherapist at the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (HIP/Emblemhealth) for over 10 years. He also maintained a private psychotherapy practice in Staten Island.
He had articles published in several professional psychoanalytic and clinical social work journals—and he authored several book reviews including a review set to be published in Fall 2018 in the journal of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. In 2006, he presented his doctoral dissertation (“Non-Verbal and Verbal Emotional Experience in the Psychotherapy of Self-Mutilating Adolescents…”) at a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland held by the Society for Psychotherapy Research. He also made other presentations on aspects of trauma for the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD).
Rob is survived by his wife of 17 years, Stacey Blair-Greenfield, who also worked at HIP when they met in 1999. They shared a wonderful life together and made their home in Staten Island. They faced Rob’s many medical challenges over the years together with love and resilience. He published a personal essay about those experiences in 2007 in the Journal of Palliative and Supportive Care.
He is also survived by his parents Burt and Paula Greenfield, a sister, Vicki Adelstein, her husband Bruce and their children Esther and Ben. His parents-in-law Clarence and Adrienne Blair, sister-in-law Wendy Maldonado and her husband Joseph and their children Marissa, Joseph and Jason.
The family requests that donations may be made in Rob’s memory to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society or to the Hope Lodge New York City (an American Cancer Society residence for those receiving cancer treatment and their caregivers).
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18