Help, like clothes, comes in all shapes and sizes. Ania Schwartzman is a clinical psychologist in New York City who has embraced a new and unorthodox practice: she goes shopping with women in an attempt to help them make good fashion choices and increase self-esteem.
Schwartzman says, "It sounds a little goofy, but I totally believe that fashion makes a difference in how you feel." She likes to hit the stores with other women in an attempt to make them feel good. She says of her clients, "I don’t do therapy with them, but I’m therapeutic."
Schwartzman got the idea when she took a friend of hers in the midst of a divorce out for a dress for her daughter's graduation. Her friend was so distraught, even though the sales help complimented her when she put on different outfits. Schwartzman had an epiphany: "I knew I could apply my psychology experience and my passion for fashion into a business."
Schwartzman says the women she accompanies shopping - none are her regular patients - are people in the midst of life changes, like a divorce, or new moms and she believes that "how you dress is not the only thing that will make you feel good in life, but it’s still a piece of it.
One of her clients says, "She’s my Rachel Zoe, with a psychology degree." You'd better be prepared to spring for more than a new pair of shoes, too - a shopping trip with Schwartzman costs $250 an hour.