meet our founder
Dr. Christine Romano
Founder & CEO, Next Level Mental Health Counseling
Dr. Christine Romano is a PhD-level Licensed Mental Health Counselor, AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist and Sex Therapist Supervisor, and EMDR-trained clinician. She founded Next Level Mental Health Counseling with a clear vision: to create a therapy practice where clients don't have to spend their first sessions explaining who they are before they can start healing.
Why She Built Next Level
Dr. Romano spent years watching a pattern repeat itself across the mental health field. Clients would cycle through therapist after therapist, not because therapy wasn't working—but because they couldn't find someone who understood their world.
A first-generation professional explaining family dynamics from scratch. An LGBTQ+ client educating their therapist about their identity. A polyamorous couple defending their relationship structure before they could address their actual concerns.
"That's not therapy," Dr. Romano explains. "That's cultural translation—and clients were paying for it."
She founded Next Level to eliminate that barrier entirely. Today, the practice serves clients across New York State with a team of 60+ diverse clinicians who provide culturally responsive, identity-affirming care. Through the practice's expert matching process, clients connect with therapists who already understand their lived experience—so they can get to the real work faster.
Clinical Expertise
Dr. Romano brings specialized training in areas where nuance and cultural fluency are essential:
Sex Therapy & Sexual Health
As an AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist and Supervisor, Dr. Romano specializes in sexual dysfunction, desire and arousal concerns, intimacy issues, and sexuality exploration. Her approach integrates clinical expertise with a sex-positive, shame-free framework.
LGBTQ+ Affirming Care
Dr. Romano works extensively with LGBTQ+ individuals, couples, and families, including those exploring gender identity, navigating coming out, or seeking support in non-traditional relationship structures.
Trauma Treatment
Trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Dr. Romano helps clients process trauma effectively and compassionately—whether they're navigating PTSD or the accumulated stress of everyday life.
Couples & Relationship Counseling
From communication challenges to infidelity recovery to premarital counseling, Dr. Romano helps couples build stronger connections through direct, compassionate guidance.
Academic Leadership
Beyond her clinical work, Dr. Romano serves as an Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in mental health counseling programs, where she trains the next generation of therapists in culturally competent, trauma-informed care.
Her research spans five interconnected areas:
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Romantic relationship dynamics & dyadic empathy — examining how accurately partners perceive each other's emotions and how that shapes communication quality and relationship outcomes
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Sex therapy & sexual wellness — advancing evidence-based approaches to sexual concerns, including sexual pain disorders, the intersection of trauma and sexuality, and connections to disordered eating
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Counselor training & development — strengthening clinicians' competence, self-efficacy, and readiness to address sexuality, trauma, and reproductive mental health in practice
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Therapist factors & the clinical relationship — exploring how therapists' own experiences, including trauma history, shape empathy, therapeutic alliance, and client outcomes
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Multicultural & intersectional counseling — centering the lived experiences of marginalized communities, including AMENA, Latine, LGBTQ+, and first-generation individuals, to advance equity and culturally responsive care
This dual role—practicing clinician and educator—ensures that Next Level stays current with evolving best practices while maintaining the human-centered approach that defines the practice.
A Different Kind of Practice
Under Dr. Romano's leadership, Next Level operates differently than most therapy practices. Clinicians are hired as W-2 employees—not independent contractors—creating stability that translates directly to better client care. A dedicated marketing and client experience team handles the business side, so therapists can focus entirely on clinical work.
The practice's signature therapist matching system replaces the exhausting "therapist shopping" experience with a thoughtful process that considers identity, therapeutic needs, and personal fit. The result: clients find the right therapist faster, and therapeutic relationships start stronger.
At the core of Next Level's clinical philosophy is a deep commitment to the therapeutic relationship itself. Research consistently shows that the quality of the alliance between therapist and client is one of the strongest predictors of treatment outcomes—and one of the most overlooked. When clients are matched with a therapist who truly understands their world, that relationship forms faster, holds stronger, and creates the conditions for real change. It also protects therapists: meaningful therapeutic relationships are a buffer against burnout, and clinician stability means clients aren't starting over.
"When your therapist already gets your world," Dr. Romano says, "therapy becomes what it's supposed to be—transformative."
