Dr. Benson Founder

Picture of Dr April Benson

April Lane Benson, Ph.D., is a nationally known psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder. She was in private practice in New York City for over 40 years. Dr. Benson graduated cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University, and 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. She 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. In 1979, Dr. Benson co-founded the Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia, the oldest outpatient eating disorders clinic in New York. For fifteen years, she served on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy.

Media

Dr. Benson appeared widely in the media, including What Would Jesus Buy?, a documentary about overconsumption in America during the holidays. Her TV appearances include “CNN,” “Good Morning America,” “The Today Show,” “CBS Evening News,” “ABC News Now,” and “BBC World Business Report.” Radio appearances include “Marketplace” on NPR, “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, “Body and Soul” on NPR in Sweden, “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.