Television Expert and Therapist

Dr. Debra Castaldo, PhD, LCSW, MS is a New York City based nationally recognized relationship expert, who has provided guidance to others for more than 35 years as a couples, family, and child therapist.

She has also been a regular contributor to print, online and television outlets on the topics of love, sex, dating, marriage and divorce prevention and adjustment.

Dr. Deb has appeared as a relationship expert on ABC News New York, Fox Good Day New York, Fox Morning Blend, NBC The 10 Show Philadelphia, Family Talk and Real Life on Comcast CN 8, Heartbeat Radio USA and In Retro Radio.

She is the Author of Relationship Reboot, Gifts of Love – Solutions for All Seasons and Divorced without Children: Solution Focused Therapy with Women at Midlife, based on her groundbreaking research on divorced women without children. In addition, Dr. Deb has a brand new book coming out in 2024, the Return to Love Playbook.

With a long list of contributions to online and print outlets, she was a long time featured therapist in the Ladies Home Journal column Can This Marriage Be Saved. Her numerous articles include Redefining Intimacy, ReBooting Your Marriage, Hitting the Wall at Midlife, and Why Long Term Marriages Fail.

Dr. Deb is an official therapy service provider for Centerstone Military Services for Wounded Warriors, as well as Backline Care, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that connects music industry professionals and their families with mental health and wellness resources.

In her therapeutic practice she brings a deep sensitivity to her work with women due to her own life experiences in long term marriage as a young adult, infertility and childlessness, separation and divorce, and dating at midlife. She is deeply passionate about her advocacy for women’s growth and development and couple relationships.

Educator and Author

Over the last 20 years Dr. Debra Castaldo has been adjunct faculty at Rutgers, Columbia, and Kean Universities, as well as Assistant Professor at Barry University. In addition She was a member of the research team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital’s Family Focused Grief Therapy Project.

She has been a Director of social work programs, including Director of Pediatric Social Work at Babies and Children’s Hospital at New York Presbyterian. She has consulted and provided professional and personal growth seminars for numerous organizations including Aetna, Chase Bank, Raytheon, The Learning Annex, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University, Rutgers University, The New Jersey State Police, and the National Family Therapy Networker Symposium.

Dr. Castaldo received a Ph.D. from New York University in Clinical Social Work, a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from West Chester University. She also completed post graduate training at the Brief Family Therapy Center, Ackerman Institute for the Family, the New York Training Institute, and the Relational Life Institute.

Dr. Castaldo is also the author of Guidelines for Assessment of Foster and Adoptive Families for Placement of Sexually Abused Children and a contributor in A Handbook of Relational Therapy for Children in Foster Care, published by Child Welfare League of America.She maintains a private practice in couples, family, and child therapy as Director of the Center for Couples and Family Solutions in in the New York Metro area.

As an award-winning ballroom dancer, Dr Deb actively participates in regional and national dance competitions.