“I began working with Andrew Lieberman in December 2022, and within a year, I have felt a significant impact on my life and career. Early in our collaboration, Andrew communicated the idea that “the outer world is a reflection of the inner world.” This concept resonated deeply with me. Despite experiencing success in my career, I felt disconnected from focus and purpose. All I could perceive were problems that lacked clear solutions. Consequently, I manifested these issues both personally and professionally.
As an artist himself, Andrew immediately understood my professional context. I have long resisted therapy or coaching because of an aversion to generic, unspecific engagement. The world is saturated with therapy language and vague self improvement resources. Yet, the deeper problems of creative function and artistic courage require a more direct approach.
During our sessions, Andrew introduced a process of self-investigation to identify unconscious patterns. He provided me with tools to engage the subconscious mind and constructive methods to reframe my obstacles.
This past year has been the most challenging of my life, but also the most productive and fulfilling. This is a direct result of my work with Andrew. Building a healthier relationship with the self is a long-term quest, but the desire to do so creates the possibility for immediate change. I am a year into this practice and am much more content. Not because of any single achievement, but because I am working with focus and purpose.”
– Marcus Shields, stage director and artist, New York City
“Working with Andrew has allowed me to develop a greater sense of authority and autonomy in my artistic practice and in my life as a whole. When we first started, I was feeling overworked, undervalued and less-than-satisfied with the work I was creating. It was a lingering haze that impacted my ability to create and collaborate with others. This time with Andrew gives me the space to not only decompress, but also to delve deep — identifying patterns and behaviors over time that compromise my own well-being. Using a symbol-based approach, we’ve been able to trace deeply personal feelings, frustrations and resentments back to root causes, creating meaningful and sustainable practical solutions. By choosing to view seemingly mundane interactions and thoughts in a symbolic way, I’ve been able to assert greater control over how I create and relate to others. I feel as though I am a kinder, more present and more honest collaborator as a result.
Due to the deeply entangled relationship between an artists’ personal and creative lives, our sessions frequently move between both areas rather seamlessly. As we’ve considered and viewed some of my more personal goals and challenges through a symbolic lens, I’ve been able to discover meaning in these situations, rather than accepting them solely at face value. It has generated a greater sense of presence in every day life – feeling like I am more in tune with myself and the world around me. While daunting at times, viewing life more symbolically has added a sense of wholeness and depth, providing both joy and understanding. My urge to seek external recognition from others has transitioned to a journey of seeking internal validation from within myself instead.
I am very grateful to Andrew for his time and care, and would wholeheartedly recommend this work to any early-to-mid career arts professional.”
– Set Designer, 31, Latinx, New York City
“Andrew is by far the best counselor I’ve been with because our work is deeply tailored to me and my specific needs. Previous counselors seem to draw from a memorized playbook of affirmations and platitudes that vaguely relate to my situation. Our authentic conversations remain unique to my situation; I am a filmmaker, so Andrew often frames our conversations in the context of a movie we’ve both watched. We discuss the movie and its message, then Andrew relates that message to my life and we explore what I can take from it. He often goes out of his way to watch movies he hasn’t seen or that I’ve created so we can discuss them during our sessions. His care and dedication to my betterment is unmatched.
Our conversations lead me to my own, organic conclusions; Andrew guides my thinking through his questions. There is no power dynamic as I feel comfortable disagreeing with him. The space he creates for us feels like a mutual haven of acceptance in which we can voice our opinions and concerns without fear of judgment.
Andrew tailors our sessions by giving me creative exercises. As an artist, understanding myself is interconnected with my understanding of my creative process. Andrew stimulates my creative side in the form of thought exercises which always relate to film, like storytelling and script writing.”
– Akshay Sudhakar, 21, jazz performance and film major at Univ. of California Irvine, first generation Indian American
“I am truly grateful for the incredible support and guidance I’ve received from Andrew. His sharp mind consistently saw through the fog of my own thoughts, helping me navigate challenges with clarity and purpose. Even when I was blinded by my own emotional material, he skillfully pinpointed the heart of the matter, illuminating a path forward.
What sets Andrew apart is not just his intellectual acumen, but the warmth and understanding he brings and his ability to empathize with my emotions, to truly grasp what I am feeling, creating a safe and nurturing space for me to explore and grow. His compassionate approach makes each step of my journey not only manageable but infused with a genuine sense of care.
I am deeply appreciative of the positive impact he has had on my life, and I wholeheartedly recommend him to anyone seeking not just a sharp mind but a compassionate ally on their journey to self-discovery and healing.”
– Pia Popovic, Slovenian, 28, psychotherapist, Zürich, CH
“Through my work with Andrew in facilitating group depth processes, I have witnessed his unparalleled capacity for holding space and building a safe and supportive container for depth work which effectively serves the Depth Coaching and dreamwork he offers clients. In the dream groups he facilitates, he attunes with compassionate curiosity and has a gift for asking questions and offering intellectual and imaginative insights that guide a dreamer to the nourishing and generative force in the psyche that directs growth. He asks questions that provide balancing and integrating views on challenging issues, reflective of his own personal growth and learning.
I have also had the pleasure of collaborating with Andrew for the past few years to design and facilitate experiences for individual and community wellness, self-exploration, and resilience building. His presence and contribution are inspiring and rooted in integrity and humility.”
– Carmen Mettler, S. Africa, founder of Infinite Leadership (Pty) Ltd, Inara, and master coach
“Andrew and I began working together in 2000 and he’s been one of my prime collaborators ever since. The reason I come back to Andrew again and again is of course because of his creativity, his eye, his talent etc, but mostly what makes him stand out in a lifetime of collaborations comes down to two different kinds of integrity. One is aesthetic integrity: the way that Andrew refuses to compromise a rigorous philosophy of design. He is willing to work harder, more imaginatively, and with more risk-taking in order to avoid making compromises to his aesthetic principles. The other is integrity in our collaboration. He values our relationship in a more profound way than many of my other colleagues. He has been my mentor, my friend, my teacher, and also has been willing to listen and grow along with me and to continue to challenge us, to push our collaboration, as an ongoing project, push it forward, ask of us more, ask us to always act as partners with integrity.”
– Sam Gold, Tony Award winning stage director
“I feel greatly indebted to Andrew for the positive impact he has had not only on our students, but on our teachers and entire school. Andrew treats our struggles, concerns, problems, and worries as if they are his own; we consider Andrew one of us and I feel he should always be with us as this will help to change the face of our community.
Andrew always offers his services selflessly…after working with Andrew, so many students have changed positively: their self-esteem has improved and they are more confident with themselves. Many students now interact honorably with each other and their seniors without fear of being judged.
I am also really grateful for the work Andrew has done with me. He has changed my life and helped me realize how to better care for myself by not being the outright problem solver and by delegating duties to others, thereby empowering them. He has given me the courage to pursue my dream of becoming a counseling psychologist. Working with Andrew has really eased my days. Andrew truly is a source of hope, especially to these young souls. Words don’t feel suitable. Andrew is a blessing wherever he goes.
– Alice Kirabi, principal, Eutychus Academy, Nairobi, Kenya
“I have known Andrew Lieberman since 2008, when we were both appointed to positions in New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts: He as Course Leader in Stage Design in the Graduate Design program of Stage and Film, I as Chair of the Graduate Acting program. We were closely allied in helping to design two newly built performance/teaching spaces which would be used by both our programs. I was constantly struck by the depth of Andrew’s interaction with the other voices in the room, where he was clearly regarded as wise beyond his years. Even those who were resistant to his and our fundamental principles of performance space functionality responded to his gentle, his calm integrity – the touchstone which raised the level of conversation to a reimagined set of values.
His approach has been the major factor in the resultant finished theaters. Incidentally for me in fact Andrew exhibits both integrity in the moral sense but also in the sense of structural wholeness – his thinking about the form and function of theatre is consistent with his broader moral outlook, and that is what makes him the complete human that I am proud to count amongst my friends.”
– Mark Wing-Davey, NYU Tisch Arts Professor and former Department Chair, Graduate Acting