Katherine Olaya Compitus

Katherine Compitus is a licensed social worker in New York and New Jersey and a doctoral candidate at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work. Her research focuses primarily on pediatric mental health and the human animal bond. She is especially interested in crisis intervention and working with trauma survivors; she is a Certified Family Trauma Therapist and trained in EMDR. Katherine was a teacher prior to becoming a social worker and has over 15 years experience working with children and families.

Katherine currently works in private practice and also at Orange Regional Medical Center as a psychiatric social worker in the emergency department. She works with clients with all types of mental illness (primarily those that are psychotic, suicidal or homicidal) and with all ages, from pediatric through geriatric. Katherine is also the founder and chairman of Surrey Hills Sanctuary, a non-profit organization providing veterinary social work services. Katherine has a MSW from NYU and also a BA in Spanish, an MSEd (Education) and an MA (Biopsychology) from Hunter College. Early in her social work career Katherine provided bilingual social work services at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and was a grief counselor for pet loss at the Animal Medical Center.