David Russell

David Russell built his practice around a single conviction: that lasting change requires reaching the root of a problem, not managing its surface. A licensed clinical psychologist based in West Hartford, Connecticut, Russell works with individuals, couples, families, and organizations across a wide range of concerns — from anxiety, depression, and trauma to relationship conflict, abuse recovery, and crisis — helping people in their twenties through their eighties move through what has kept them stuck.

His Achievement Centered approach departs sharply from conventional weekly therapy. Rather than open-ended conversation, each engagement begins with a concrete, personally defined goal — what Russell calls a Personal Minor Miracle — something currently out of reach that will serve as undeniable proof that the work succeeded. Sessions run 90 minutes to three hours, sometimes paired into full mental health days, because he found that real breakthroughs need room to fully develop. The worry that loops through a client’s mind at midnight, or the low-grade dread they carry from notification to notification, tends to have deeper roots than any coping technique can touch.

Russell trained at Swarthmore, Rutgers, and Yale, and has served as a clinical instructor at Yale School of Medicine. He offers both in-person and online sessions.