Dr. Ellie Henkind Katz

Biography

From as far back as she can remember, Dr. Ellie Henkind Katz has had a need to help people straighten themselves out. It might have something to do with the fact that as a child, bedtime prayers with her father were always followed by: “Dear God in heaven, bless all the poor and all the sick people.” In high school and college, Ellie’s peers called her the Earth Mother because of her warm, accepting nature.

In graduate school, she chose an intellectual path and wrote a doctoral dissertation on how young children develop the ability to amplify the content of their conversation with hand gestures. She was fascinated by the art of body language.

A born and bred New Yorker, Ellie fell in love with the artist Michael Katz in the seventies. They soon moved to his native country, Israel, and set up house in the Judean Hills outside Jerusalem. Their residence is today a tourist attraction: guests are invited, free of charge, to wander through the sculpture gardens, often in the company of the live peacocks that reside in the Katz’s barnyard.

Dr. Ellie taught at the Hebrew University for over twenty years. By the early nineteen-eighties, it dawned on her that her true calling was of a more clinical nature. Consequently, she went back to school and acquired formal education in marriage and family therapy as well as biofeedback, aromatherapy, the biochemistry of medicinal herbs, reflexology, and hypnotherapy. By the nineteen-nineties, she had formulated a unique approach to therapy that included guided thinking and the Bach Flower Remedies. The Foreign Ministry of Israel sent Ellie to China and Turkey to teach psychiatrists and psychologists her novel methodology – Holistic Psychotherapy.

At this point in her career, she decided to focus on all things connected to irresistible urges and obtained licensing as an addiction specialist in Israel and the United States. Since 2003, she has been working at Retorno, an addiction rehabilitation center in Israel.

She began writing clinical tales about her work and published them in Hebrew to great acclaim. In an effort to expand her readership, these early works, plus several new ones, have been adapted for English-speaking audiences, yet remain faithful to the core issues.

Love and Kisses from my Padded Cell is a lively, engaging work explaining how ten men and women wound up in the mire of addiction. Dr. Ellie doesn’t really differentiate between kinds of addictions and instead addresses her techniques and interventions to the common threads she sees among all compulsive behaviors.

When Sane People Do Insane Things is her manifesto on health and well-being. It’s a generous work, providing very useful information and techniques for straightening out the messes we all inflict on ourselves. It’s directed toward anyone who finds him-or-herself saying or doing regrettable things.

My Last Summer as a Fat Girl is Dr. Ellie’s frank and honest portrayal of herself confronting a lifetime battle with food – what it did for her and what it did to her. It’s the kind of book that makes you laugh and cry, and definitely want to get to know her better.

Still living in the Judean Hills, the author spends as much time as possible with her dozen-plus grandchildren, who only know her under the alter ego, “Gwammy.” She continues to write and produce creative work, and even has a novel or two up her sleeve among her upcoming projects. You can find her latest food for thought, clinical tales, and reflections on her experiences at her blog: www.elliekatz.com/blog

Where to find Dr. Ellie Henkind Katz online

Website: http://elliekatz.com
Wattpad: DrEllieKatz

Books

This member has not published any books.