Judith Liu, LCSW

About Judith

A clinician who brings the whole picture

Judith Liu is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the founder of Steady Compass Counseling Services. Since earning her Master's degree in Social Work from New York University in 2003, she has built a practice that bridges traditional mental health care with the healing potential of the human-animal bond.

Her work at The Gentle Paw centers on five areas where that bond shapes mental health most directly: brief pet loss coaching for people in acute grief, emotional support animal evaluations, exposure work for fear of dogs and other animals, animal-assisted psychotherapy, and assessment and support for families worried about a child's behavior toward an animal. As a Certified Animal-Assisted Intervention Specialist (C-AAIS) through the American Association of Animal Intervention Professionals, she ensures animals are incorporated into sessions ethically, intentionally, and purposefully, with the welfare of the animal weighted as carefully as the progress of the client.

Most of the people Judith sees are adults and children living with anxiety, ADHD, or the effects of trauma. For many of them, an animal in the room changes what is possible. A child who struggles to sit through talk therapy can often settle beside a therapy animal, and an adult who has learned to stay guarded will sometimes say the true thing to the animal first. Animal-assisted psychotherapy is offered in person only, at the Nyack, New York office.

Her specialized training in Pet Loss Counseling through the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement gives her the tools to guide clients through one of life's most misunderstood forms of grief, with both compassion and clinical insight. Her own pet loss work is brief and short term by design. It is coaching for the most acute stretch of a loss: the days around a euthanasia decision, a sudden or traumatic death, or grief that has made it hard to eat, sleep, or work. When longer-term support makes sense, she refers to clinicians on her team who carry that work: Jodie Goldberg, LMSW, Eric C. Lee, and Clarisa Anguiano-Robles. She also facilitates the APLB pet loss support chat room on Sunday evenings, a free peer space where people grieving an animal can be heard by others who understand.

That same clinical grounding shapes her approach to emotional support animal evaluations, which she treats as genuine assessments of whether an animal supports a person's mental health needs rather than as paperwork.

Judith holds an Animal Behavior and Conservation certification from Hunter College, which deepens her understanding of animal behavior and supports safe therapeutic interactions. That background matters especially in her work with clients who carry fear, avoidance, or phobia around animals, where careful pacing and an accurate read of the animal are what make exposure work safe. Her training in Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy through EAGALA allows her to work alongside equine specialists in experiential sessions that build trust and emotional growth, and she is currently completing training in the Natural Lifemanship model.

She is also a Registered Therapy Animal Evaluator and Handler with Pet Partners, which allows her to prepare other therapy teams to safely share the healing power of the human-animal bond. Her background includes more than ten years of hands-on experience across a wide range of animal settings: volunteering with rescues, fostering animals in need, working extensively with horses, and providing animal-assisted therapy on a farm.

Whether the goal is to get through an acute loss, work through fear, strengthen coping skills, or experience the comfort of working with animals in a therapeutic setting, Judith provides a safe and compassionate space that honors each person's unique journey.

Not every concern involves an animal. Judith also provides general counseling for adults and children through Steady Compass Counseling Services, the group practice she founded and directs.