Dr. Robert Spiro, PhD, ABPP

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Get to know Psychologist Dr. Robert Spiro, who serves patients in Boca Raton, Florida.

A licensed psychologist with 45+ years of experience, Dr. Spiro is in private practice in Boca Raton, Florida. He provides quality, culturally-sensitive and evidence-based therapy services for couples, individuals, and families, using an integrative approach designed to meet the specific needs of each client and modality. 

Treating children, adolescents, and adults, Dr. Spiro has developed a profound understanding of the range of issues that clients present and has tailored his approach to delivering relief effectively and empathically. His specialty is offering a highly effective analytic approach augmented with cognitive behavioral techniques (CBT) when appropriate.

“I believe that personal growth is an innate human quality that motivates each of us to pursue new goals, strive for clarity and find the loving connections that sustain us through good and trying times. Unfortunately, we often get in our own way without knowing the causes, frustrating our efforts to achieve these ends. Commitment and dedication to self-discovery is the first step toward achieving greater emotional freedom. While this can be a challenging journey, the rewards are priceless. I believe that most clients will achieve significant relief through our collaborative work together.”

In regards to his educational background, Dr. Spiro received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Hofstra University in 1966 and his Ph.D. from Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences in New York City in 1973. As a graduate student, he was awarded a three-year Public Health Service Fellowship from the National Institute of Health. 

Following the completion of his course work, Dr. Spiro did his clinical internship at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center in the Bronx, New York from 1970-1971. He was then awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in neurophysiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center from 1971-1974. During his tenure as a postdoctoral fellow, he was able to maintain a full clinical caseload to add to his previous experience.

Pursuing postdoctoral training in clinical psychology, Dr. Spiro applied to and was accepted as a postdoctoral fellow in clinical psychology at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts from 1974-1976. 

“For those of you who might not know, the Austen Riggs Center was and remains one of the finest private mental health facilities in the country. What is unique to Austen Riggs is that it is a completely open psychiatric hospital. What this means is that patients dress in street clothes and come and go as they please without passes or permission. There are no locked units. It is as close to independent living under supervision (perhaps a bit of an oxymoron) as possible. Medications were used sparingly and only when deemed clinically necessary. Patients were seen 4 to 5 hours weekly in a caseload could be as high as five inpatients. The work was intense and the learning curve steep. Unlike other psychiatric institutions, we lacked the physical restraints and intimidations that could force compliance so you really had to learn how to talk and to listen.”

After the completion of his two-year postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology, Dr. Spiro applied for a two-year advanced postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology from 1976 – 1978.

Possessing board certification in clinical psychology granted by the American Board of Professional Psychology, he holds the esteemed title of Fellow of the Academy of Clinical Psychology. 

In addition, Dr. Spiro is an active member of both the American Psychological Association and the Southeast Florida Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology.

Psychology is the science of behavior and mind. It includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought. It is an academic discipline of immense scope. Psychologists assess, diagnose, and treat the psychological problems and behavioral dysfunctions resulting from, or related to, physical and mental health. In addition, they play a major role in the promotion of healthy behavior, preventing diseases and improving patients’ quality of life.

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