Dominique Pagano, LCSW

Director of Social Work Training.

Dominique Pagano, LCSW, is the Associate Director of CFI-Long Island and a psychotherapist. She provides therapy for individuals, families, and groups utilizing a variety of therapeutic approaches including but not limited to Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Parent Management Training, Behavioral Activation, Motivational Interviewing, and Child Centered Play Therapy. As a therapist, Pagano strongly emphasizes the therapeutic alliance, utilizing an integrative, dynamic, and holistic approach to mental health with individuals and families. She approaches her work with a strengths-based and trauma-informed lens to best support her clients’ emotional, physical and relational health.

Pagano has extensive experience working with children, adolescents and their families prior to joining CFI. Pagano worked for the Mental Health Service Corps at Bellevue Hospital’s Child and Adolescent Outpatient Psychiatry as a Behavioral Health Clinician, where she primarily treated children and adolescents with depression, anxiety, PTSD, behavioral issues, Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and parenting concerns. In addition to providing individual psychotherapy at Bellevue, she helped develop a strong alliance between the clinic and the hospital school (PS 35 M), facilitating group therapy programming and crisis intervention for high-risk youth prior to their return to community school settings. Pagano is experienced in working collaboratively with children, their families, and school staff in advocating for and obtaining the most appropriate services and school placements to allow for the most successful outcomes.

Pagano received her B.A. in Communication Disorders specializing in child development from SUNY New Paltz, and her master’s degree in Social Work from Fordham Graduate School of Social Service. During her time at Fordham University, Pagano specialized in treating child and adolescent trauma, working primarily with youth with extensive histories of trauma, and received training in Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) for the treatment of PTSD.