Our Therapists

With offices throughout New Jersey, IPG employs more than thirty experienced and licensed therapists, including many AASECT-certified Sex Therapists. This large variety of professionals enables IPG to match your unique needs with a therapist whose specialty can help you the most. We are very experienced in relationship counseling, family therapy, and working with children, from the very young through adolescence. We’re also internationally known for our work with the LGBTQ community, and have particular expertise working with transgender and gender non-conforming children and youth.

We have assembled a diverse staff, trained in a variety of treatment techniques. IPG therapists are trained in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Imago relationship counseling, Gottman couples counseling, objects relations theory, mindfulness meditation, family systems theory, Gestalt therapy, and psychodrama. Several of us are AASECT-certified sex therapists, and several are certified alcohol and substance abuse specialists. Many therapist are trained in EMDR and we have several trained in play therapy for the younger children. Others have specialized training and experience with young children, others with adolescents and young adults.

All of our therapists participate in group and individual supervision as part of their work at IPG, and all take part in bi-monthly in-service professional trainings given at the IPG offices. In this way we keep current, not only in the techniques listed above, but in the ethical requirements of our profession, applications of neuroscience to psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and other areas of knowledge that have a crucial impact on psychotherapy.

Our Directors

The IPG ship is steered jointly by Susan Menahem, LCSW, and Cory Nichols, PhD. Susan is our Clinical Director, and a veteran IPG therapist, having first joined us in 2001 as a therapist. She assumed her current role in 2016, and now oversees the supervision and training of IPG’s dozens of therapists. But that hasn’t interrupted her role as a core IPG counselor, maintaining a full-time caseload of clients herself, at both our Freehold and Highland Park offices. Cory first worked for IPG designing web and marketing materials such as brochures, newsletters, and content for their original website, back in the late 90s and early 2000s. After spending several years earning his PhD from Princeton University, he rejoined the team in 2017 to run IPG alongside Susan as its Business Director. As the son of our Founder Dr. Margaret Nichols and the previous Business Director Nancy Musgrave, he is doing his best to carry on his mothers’ legacy. Susan and Cory have been officially running the show together since August of 2018.

IPG Therapists

Affiliated Therapists

Our Business Staff

Our excellent business staff assures that new clients are quickly matched to the appropriate therapists and scheduled for appointments. And our state-of-the-art IT infrastructure enables us to handle the financial and insurance sides of your therapy in a manner that maximizes efficiency, confidentiality, and consideration for your personal situation. The office staff handle everything from customer service to maintaining client accounts to coordinating daily operations in all the IPG offices so that everything runs smoothly. Our Operations Supervisor Art Manilio, and Office Administrator Lisa Cusumano, somehow manage all this as well as special projects, with help from our newest office staff member, Amber Crandall. Our Business Director Cory Nichols oversees all of this, as well as web and marketing initiatives, accounting, contracts, and all other business-related aspects of IPG.

Our Founder

Margaret Nichols, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and AASECT-certified sex therapist, is the Founder and former and Executive Director of the Institute for Personal Growth. She oversaw clinical supervision and training of all IPG therapists from our inception in 1983 until 2016. She also maintains a small practice, publishes regularly, and delivers lectures around the country. In addition to Dr. Nichols’ publications, many members of our therapy staff are well-known for their published writings in areas that include domestic violence, relationships, LGBTQ issues, kink, and polyamory.