An Inspired Chat with Ben Dickstein

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Ben Dickstein. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning Ben, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
I cracked up pretty hard last night riffing with my older daughter. We’re both fans of ASMR videos on YouTube (it’s a whole phenomenon if you’re not familiar), and we started joking about launching an ASMR channel featuring a whispery, soft-spoken (yet clearly angry) guy ranting in hushed, simmering tones about random stuff. It turned into a hilarious back-and-forth that kept us going for a while.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Ben Dickstein, a clinical psychologist and owner of Ascend Psychological Services, a private practice in Downtown Cincinnati. I work with clients ages 15 and older, with most of my work focusing on adults. I help people work through challenges related to anxiety, ADHD, depression, trauma and PTSD, grief, insomnia, OCD, and life transitions. I also conduct a wide range of psychological assessments.

I opened my practice in 2020 after spending about seven years as a psychologist at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center.

If I had to sum up what makes my style of therapy somewhat unique, I would say that I often use humor, offer personal insights when it’s helpful, rely on analogies to make concepts clear, and integrate evidence-based approaches to create meaningful and lasting change.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
My older brother, just a couple of years ahead of me, is one of those freakishly smart people who literally score in the top fraction of a percent on aptitude tests. Coming up behind him, I had a lot of the same teachers who sometimes had expectations I wasn’t going to meet. Wrongly, I labeled myself the ‘not as smart one’ and didn’t set ambitious goals for a long time. Somewhere along the way I realized I’m a bright guy too, and that intelligence is actually a tricky thing to pin down with a definition. The definition I’ve come to like best is an individual’s ability to adapt and thrive in a novel environment.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yep. My first semester of grad school. That would have been a HUGE mistake. I completed my bachelor’s degree at Ohio University and, as luck would have it, was accepted into my first-choice graduate program at Boston University. Moving to Boston brought a wave of culture shock. My graduate cohort was filled with students from some of the most prestigious schools in the country. Many had attended elite prep schools and spoke with an intimidating level of precision and poise. It also felt like they knew so much more than I did. I truly feared I was in over my head. Thankfully, I stayed and rose to the challenge. At graduation, my advisor told me I had grown more during graduate school than any student he had mentored in his decades-long career. That meant a great deal to me.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
Tricky question! I would argue that almost no one’s public self completely overlaps with their private self. If you want to read about an interesting psychological theory on this, check out something called the Johari Window.

That said, I try to be as genuine as possible and keep a casual style as a therapist.

I’m a fan of stand-up comedy, which I think is because I have a somewhat dark and subversive sense of humor (something easy to find in the comedy world). I for sure read the room, though, and avoid going too “Anthony Jeselnik” with “Jay Leno” audiences, so to speak.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I suppose I’ve developed bits of personal philosophy over time. One thing that irks me is how “not speaking ill of the dead” often turns into people being walk-on-water-perfect in legacy. I often joke that, JUST ONCE, I’d love to read an obit saying something like, “Look, Ben was a solid C+ dude.” I’m willing to personally take the hit on this one if it means we’re allowed to still be human in memory. So, with that said, I guess I’d hope they’d pick a story about me that captures this…maybe how I went a couple years mispronouncing the word quinoa before someone told me it isn’t ‘kee-no-uh.’

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ascendcincinnati.com