Jewish Clergy and Leadership Professionals
Jason Wasser, LMFT | 20+ Years Inside Jewish Communal Life | Confidential Telehealth in 7 States
Who Takes Care of the Person Everyone Else Turns To?
As a Jewish clergy therapist with two decades inside Jewish communal life, I built this practice for the people everyone else leans on.
Rabbis and cantors. Executive directors and programming staff. Hebrew school and religious school directors. Youth directors and camp directors. Board members and lay leaders who carry more than anyone sees. If your role asks you to hold everyone else’s grief, crisis, and doubt, you spend your days doing that — often with nowhere of your own to put it down. Most therapists understand therapy. Few understand what it actually costs to be the person a community leans on every single day.
I started working in Jewish communal life in 1998, as an undergrad, and I never really left it. Grad school came later, 2003 to 2005, but I worked Jewish communal jobs all the way through it, and for years after, while I was building this private practice alongside it.
Student Life Coordinator at Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life/Hillel. Regional Program Director of Young Judaea Southern Region. Youth Programming Director at Beth Ahm Israel synagogue. Programming Co-Chair and board member for Limmud Miami. Isralight Leadership Training in Jerusalem. The Broward County March of the Living, in 2010 and 2012. This wasn’t a chapter I closed before becoming a therapist — it’s a career I ran alongside this one for the better part of two decades.
I know what it’s like to be “on” at a shiva, a wedding, and a board meeting in the same week — and to have exactly no one ask how you’re doing. That’s not a background I mention to build rapport. It’s the reason this practice exists.
The Weight You Carry Alone
If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not imagining it, and you’re not failing at your calling.
Your community is small. The therapists your congregants see are often the same therapists you’d have to see. So most clergy simply don’t get help — not because they don’t need it, but because there’s nowhere private to get it.
Life-cycle events don’t wait for your day off. A congregant’s crisis at 2am becomes your crisis at 2am — the late-night call, the hospital visit, the funeral — often with no one behind you when the formal systems are overloaded.
You’ve led the vigils, fielded the impossible questions, and managed a congregation split over Israel — some expecting unwavering public support, others pushing back hard, and you caught in between, afraid of saying the wrong thing from the pulpit either way.
A board, search committee, or major donor whose priorities don’t match your judgment or your community’s real needs — and pushing back can feel like it puts your job on the line.
Admitting burnout, anxiety, or depression can feel like it threatens your credibility or your contract. So it stays unsaid — until it shows up in your body, your marriage, or a decision you later regret.
You’ve absorbed the anger, the antisemitism, the anti-Israel rhetoric, and your own communal grief — and almost no one has ever asked what carrying all of that has cost you.
There’s Support for Jewish Communal Life. There’s Almost Nothing for the People Leading It.
There are crisis lines. There are one-off wellness webinars. There’s the expectation that you’ll figure it out, because that’s what clergy have always done. What there isn’t much of is an ongoing, private, clinically-trained relationship built specifically around what it means to lead a Jewish community right now — not generic executive coaching, not a therapist who needs the last twenty minutes of your session explained to them. That’s the gap this practice fills.
Two Ways to Work Together
For clergy, executive directors, program staff, educators, and lay leaders who want licensed clinical care — for burnout, anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, or marital strain. Confidential, HIPAA-protected, delivered via secure telehealth so you’re never in a waiting room where a congregant, parent, or board member might walk in.
For Jewish communal leaders who want a more practical, forward-facing container — navigating a board conflict, building sustainable boundaries, or strengthening leadership skills, without a clinical diagnosis on record. Built on the Business Success Index coaching framework.
Not sure which one fits? A consultation call will sort that out together — no pressure either way.
You Take Care of Everyone. Let’s Take Care of You.
One confidential conversation, no obligation. Telehealth across 7 states so “private” actually means private.
Book a Confidential Consultation
Or call us at (954) 324-3677
Why Work With a Jewish Clergy Therapist
Run alongside my clinical career, not before it — Hillel, synagogue youth programming, Young Judaea, Limmud Miami board. You won’t have to explain what a High Holiday sprint or a shiva week actually demands of you.
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), trained in NET (Neuro Emotional Technique) for stored stress and trauma, and a certified Business Success Index Entrepreneur Coach.
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, New Jersey, Missouri, and Massachusetts — so “private” actually means private, even if your community is small and everyone knows everyone.
March of the Living twice, Isralight training in Jerusalem — a therapist who doesn’t need October 7th and what it did to Jewish communal leadership explained to him.
You’re allowed to grieve what this year has cost you. You’re allowed to be angry, tired, scared, or unsure — even while you’re the one everyone else looks to for steadiness. None of that makes you less capable of leading. It makes you human, and it’s exactly what this space is for.
Common Questions
Will anyone in my community know I’m doing this?
No. Sessions are confidential, HIPAA-protected telehealth, and I serve clergy and communal professionals across 7 states specifically so you’re never limited to providers who overlap with your own congregation.
I’m not a rabbi or cantor — I’m an executive director, program staff, a Hebrew school or religious school director, a youth or camp director, or a board member. Is this still for me?
Yes. This page isn’t just for clergy. If your job asks you to hold other people’s crises, run the institution, manage staff and budget, represent Jewish life to a community, or carry outsized responsibility as a volunteer board leader — and rarely gets asked how you’re doing — this is built for you too.
Do you take insurance?
This practice is out-of-network, so insurance isn’t billed directly. A superbill can be provided for clients who want to seek out-of-network reimbursement from their plan.
What if I just need to talk to someone once, not start ongoing therapy?
A consultation call is exactly that — no commitment, just a conversation about what you’re carrying and whether working together makes sense.
You Take Care of Everyone. Let’s Take Care of You.
One confidential conversation with a Jewish clergy therapist, no obligation. Bring whatever you’re holding.