{"id":32516,"date":"2026-03-09T05:52:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=32516"},"modified":"2026-03-13T05:56:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:56:32","slug":"social-worker-kimberly-mack-brings-her-knowledge-of-cognitive-wellness-to-a-community-of-seniors-which-helps-people-find-new-insights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=32516","title":{"rendered":"Social Worker Kimberly Mack brings Her Knowledge of \u201cCognitive Wellness\u201d To a Community of Seniors Which Helps People Find New Insights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kim Mack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Profile by Mike Greenly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a successful professional in New York, Kimberly Mack helps people gain awareness and insights into their lives. A talented and insightful employee of Hawthornhealth.org, this social worker works with Harmony Road, a company that allows her to create valuable awareness in the minds of a wide variety of individuals and groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While living in an apartment complex for older people in the borough of the Bronx, I personally experienced her life-enhancing talent in action. This 60-something does such impressive work that I felt compelled to increase awareness of her and her organization. Once a week, Mack runs a group called \u201cCognitive Wellness.\u201d Every Friday morning her one-hour exercise produces insights into ourselves and valuable perspectives on current situations and future aspirations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend and neighbor, Dennis Kendrick, has commented on what a good listener she is, with her ability to ask questions that make us think. Another friend, Alan LaRue, also attends the Cognitive Wellness sessions for the way\u2026 \u201cIt encourages us to share our truths with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Kittay House management hadn\u2019t hired her to bring us an interesting and helpful activity, we would never have known of this. Mack has the creds to back up her skillset. She completed an Associate in Marketing from Westchester Business College, a nursing degree from Westchester Community College later specializing in acute psychiatric care, a Bachelor’s and Master\u2019s in Psychology from Mercy College and another Master\u2019s in social work from NYU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Mack has always been proud of her Irish ancestry. \u201cOne of my favorite Irish proverbs is \u2018A question is a door and curiosity is the key.\u2019 Questioning our thinking is essential to learning about ourselves and about one another as well as the world as a whole. Further, as another Irish proverb about awareness puts it, \u201cMay you have the hindsight to know where you\u2019ve been, the foresight to know where you\u2019re going, and the insight to know when you\u2019ve gone too far.\u201d This is essential for thinking about our goals and our habits which make up our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: I had never heard about Harmony Road before.
 
Kimberly Mack: Harmony Road was founded by a group of passionate individuals who decided to dedicate their lives to helping individuals. Today we handle many different situations. Our founders recognized the need for a small, focused company that could provide personalized treatment to every patient, taking a holistic approach to relevant issues. 
 
As you know yourself from our weekly group, our work reflects the positive value of mental health in general. The goal in our weekly Cognitive Wellness sessions is to help you and all your participating neighbors gain insights that will help each of you to achieve greater happiness and success as defined by yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Well, it\u2019s certainly been working for me. I had decades of psychoanalysis which helped me overcome past problems and become a successful executive. But your sessions give me and my neighbors new ways to view our identities and opportunities. Do you do more than work with organizations like ours?
 
Kimberly Mack: Yes. In New York, for example, we make in-home visits with mental health services. We\u2019ve expanded our offerings to offer a psychiatric nurse practitioner, with medication management in home or via video. We can also send an aide directly to someone\u2019s home and do safe phlebotomy services, conveniently drawing blood for testing. 
 
There are many ways that an in-home visit can be helpful. We also go to assisted living facilities \u2013\u2013 not into nursing homes or rehabs. The bulk of my clients are in-home visits, but I also do telephone visits.
 
I\u2019m glad to be of service to a wide variety of people. I have several Vietnam vets. People with mental stressors, anxiety and decades-old conflict in some cases. I have noticed that all my clients share varying kinds of grief.
 
Q: Can you share a bit about the organization. 
 
Kimberly Mack: Harmony Road is under the umbrella of Hawthornehealth.org. We work to help our clients find and use wisdom from the comfort of their own homes. Here in New York City, I\u2019m glad to be working with Daniel Kohen, a wonderful supervisor and mentor. When I seek advice, he\u2019s where I turn.
 
But as you\u2019ll see when you explore our website, we have about 20 social workers upstate in New York\u2019s Westchester County alone. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to learn of future expansions. I\u2019m proud to work in a company that does so much good. 
 
Q: You have many more functions than the group I experience in my building\u2019s auditorium every Friday afternoon. What do you like about running the Cognitive Awareness group?
 
Kimberly Mack: I love and appreciate stimulating others. While also being stimulated by seeing people become more aware of thoughts and ideas they hadn\u2019t realized were in their minds. To question things they hadn\u2019t asked themselves about before. And to appreciate each other more. To gain a higher sense of gratitude and awareness about themselves and their own lives.
 
Our discussions and our sharing as a group brings up topics one might not have thought of. They\u2019re stimulating. The groups attract people who want these kinds of insights \u2026 but not always people who might need and benefit from our discussions. There are a lot of people who could benefit from our \u201ccognitive awareness\u201d conversations.
 
Q: You run other types of groups as well?
 
Kimberly Mack: Yes, and I love doing it. When I went to NYU for social work, my favorite course was group work. Out of everybody I met there, our group teacher, Adrienne Resnick LCSW was the most dynamic, well-versed, and well-traveled. She had the most compassion, empathy, and understanding of others. She and I got along well and I am honored to follow in her footsteps.
 
I\u2019ve done a couple groups for a classroom at Mercy College. I also did groups in a secure state-operated hospital for individuals with mental illness who require forensic treatment, often following court-ordered commitment.
 
Any chance to broaden people\u2019s perspectives and ideas, getting them to think about themselves and others is a good thing. Whoever I meet, I\u2019d like to improve the quality of their life. Engaging them in a way that is stimulating and makes them think.
 
Q: How did your career take this direction?
 
Kimberly Mack: This has become my life path, my destiny. I started working washing cars as an eight-year-old and as soon as I had any money, I bought a subscription to \u201cPsychology Today.\u201d
 
I was planning to get a PhD in psychology. But the people who knew me best and that I respected the most said that, actually, I was already doing social work in my life. They asked me, \u201cSo why don\u2019t you focus on social work?\u201d 
 
I\u2019m so glad they encouraged me in this direction. NYU Social Work gave me a broader perspective than psychology alone. You could say that my work is \u201cbio-psycho-social,\u201d seeking to help the people I work with in multiple ways of understanding, not just one.
 
At Mercy College, I worked through many courses with the Sociology Department on conflict resolution with the amazing Dr. Dorothy Balancio. This deeply involves learning to understand relationships while building trust & intimacy and finding comfort in them. 
 
I had focused on psychology for many years, starting with myself. That\u2019s the place to start: \u201cto thine own self be true.\u201d I\u2019ve always been a seeker, in an ongoing quest to learn and grow. Real growth starts with gaining insights into one\u2019s own self, which I work to help others gain as well. Every relationship is compromised when we don\u2019t understand ourselves.  
 
Q: Working with a group of older people, that\u2019s just part of what you do?
 
Kimberly Mack: Yes. For example, I go to New Rochelle on Tuesdays. There are regular clients I see \u2013 both in assisted living and in their homes. 
 
Not necessarily just single elderly. I also help multiple family members at times. I\u2019ve gone into an Alzheimer\u2019s unit as part of my assisted living focus, with memory care and a spectrum of dementia. I\u2019ve started couples counseling, too. But my favorite thing is the concept of Wellness because everybody can benefit from that.
 
I find my clients very interesting. Each of them has a story and when you truly process it, you find wisdom. When we learn to see our lives from a broader perspective, we gain peace from understanding our truths in a way that connects them more to themselves and others.
 
Working with elders is really great, too. Many professionals want to work with children, so kids have enough help. But I think that our elder population is sometimes misunderstood \u2013\u2013 especially now in society.
 
Ageism is a factor. Older people are underserved in some regards. With a lot of isolation in some cases. So to have someone truly listen is valuable.
 
I\u2019m now using my listening skills to work on a client\u2019s life story. He was a musician for 50 years but his hands aren\u2019t working. We are capturing his life story so he can share it with his family \u2026 leaving his legacy in written form.
 
Having read \u201cPsychology Today\u201d when I was eight years old, a half-century later, I\u2019m still fascinated by learning why people do what they do. Being of help in every way I can. That\u2019s giving me real satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information go to: hawthornhealth.org<\/a> which brings you to Harmony Road.<\/p>\n

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