About

Mission Statement:

Stopping Overshopping, LLC, exists to alleviate the suffering, particularly to individuals, caused by compulsive buying. We work towards:

• providing overshoppers and their loved ones with effective help and supporting them in their recovery work; and
• training therapists and related professionals to help overshoppers and the people who love them;
• raising public awareness about overshopping and the dangers of overconsumption;
• promoting consumer advocacy initiatives.

Dr. April Benson

April Lane Benson, Ph.D., is a nationally known psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder. Dr. Benson has been in private practice in New York City for over 25 years. A cum laude graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, she’s earned a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Ferkauf Graduate School, Yeshiva University. Dr. Benson holds post-graduate certificates in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis from the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, in the treatment of eating disorders from the Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia, and in Spirituality and Psychotherapy from the Blanton-Peale Institute for Pastoral Counseling. Co-founder of the Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia in New York,  Dr. Benson also serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy.

Author of To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and HOw to Stop and editor of I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive BUying and the Search for Self, Dr. Benson has also published chapters in several professional books and is currently engaged in empirical research into the efficacy of the Stopping Overshopping model of treatment.

Dr. Benson has appeared widely in the media, including What Would Jesus Buy?, a documentary about overconsumption in America during the holidays. She has worked with shopaholics on “My Strange Addiction,” “The Bank of Mom and Dad,” “The Secret Lives of Women,” and on MTV’s “True Life: I’m a Shopaholic.”   Her most recent TV news appearances were on the “CBS Evening News,” Mary Talks Money,” “CNN,” “Good Morning America,” “The Today Show,” “ABC News Now,” and “BBC World Business Report.” Radio appearances include “Marc Sussman’s Money Messages” on Air America, “The Peter Walsh Show” on Oprah and Friends Radio, “The Jean Chatzky Show” on Oprah and Friends Radio, “the Brian Lehrer Show”, “the Business Shrink,” “Your Turn,” “Money Scope,” and “Love and Money” on XM Satellite radio. Quoted in The New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Toronto Star, she has also been referenced in Money Magazine, Kiplinger Personal Finance, Simple Living, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Redbook, Marie Claire, and a variety of internet publications. For an online press kit, click here. For upcoming media, click here.

Dr. Benson teaches therapists at a number of postgraduate institutes and college counseling centers and conducts 4-session didactic courses for therapist and 12-session trainings in the comprehensive treatment model that she and her colleagues have developed. For details, click here. Dr. Benson also teaches a course online, I Shop, Therefore I Am: Understanding and Treating Compulsive Buying. For details go to www.PsyBC.com.

Maintaining a private practice in New York City, Dr. Benson and her associates Dr. Kathleen Galek, and Dr. Sarah Weinberger-Litman, see individual compulsive buyers and work with small groups in the New York metropolitan area. They also provide telephone coaching, using the same program, with overshoppers outside of the New York metropolitan area.

Did Dr. Benson ever have a shopping problem? YES! To read more about this. Click here.

Our Staff:

Carla McNeil, LCSW, received her Bachelor of Science degree with concentrations in Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate. After working in the insurance and finance business, she pursued and won a masters degree in Social Work from East Carolina University. She also holds the designation of master hypnotist and EMDR therapist. Ms. McNeil has been in private practice since 2002 and has worked with various issues related to addictive disorders. While providing individual and group counseling related to compulsive shopping, including setting up spending plans and reviewing financial decisions that impact the future, she also completed training with Dr. Benson. Carla led the Spring 2011 Telecoaching group.

David Eisenach is the research assistant for Stopping Overshopping, LLC. A graduate of McGill University, David is currently working full-time at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy as he prepares for Psychology graduate study. He has been working with Dr. Benson and Stopping Overshopping since August of 2010, handling research, writing, data analysis, and social media.

Cassie Van Stolk-Cooke was an intern for Stopping Overshopping, LLC from May 2011 – June 2012. A recent
graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University, Cassie is a co-author of a research paper about the pilot outcome study on the Stopping Overshopping treatment method.

Christina Anne Salerno joined Stopping Overshopping, LLC as a research assistant in April, 2013. She is currently a sophomore at Barnard College of Columbia University, where she is double majoring in Economics and Psychology and a teaching assistant for Introductory Laboratory in Experimental Psychology. Christina handles research, writing, and communications at Stopping Overshopping, LLC.