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A Key Therapy Launches in Trumansburg, Serving Clients in Four States

The mindfulness-based telehealth practice, founded by Ithaca clinician Lex E. Santí, LCSW, is licensed in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia, and is hiring.



TRUMANSBURG, N.Y., August 18th, 2026. A Key Therapy LCSW, PLLC, a mindfulness-based group practice, will officially launch September 4th, 2026, from Trumansburg. Its clinicians and coaches see clients in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia by secure telehealth. The website is found at www.akeytherapy.co


The practice is built around what founder Lex E. Santí, LCSW, calls attuned care.

“Attuned care means the client comes first, and that we are constantly working and re-working our understanding of what they actually need, not what we think they need,” Santí said.


Background


Santí grew up in Ithaca. He returned in 2011, after completing his MSW at Washington University in St. Louis, to run Cornell University’s travel safety and international crisis response program, a university-wide role covering more than 20,000 students across hundreds of global programs.


He then moved into community mental health at Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca, where he worked with families across the region and trained clinical staff. In 2022, he returned to Cornell as a generalist therapist at Counseling and Psychological Services, part of Cornell Health, where he has spent the past four years working with students.

“I wanted to build something with people I deeply respect,” Santí said. “As a Cuban American man whose parents were refugees and then spent years making their way in this country, taking ownership of what you build is the central interest of my life. And there’s something genuinely beautiful about a group of clinicians sitting down together to meditate, clinicians who are responsible for the hearts and minds of countless others.”


Who the practice serves


A Key Therapy works with students, young adults, and adults on anxiety, depression, grief, burnout, relationship and family stress, identity, and life transitions. Mindfulness-based therapy is the practice’s specialty, not an add-on.


“We are a key to someone’s wellness, not the whole of it,” Santí said. “We don’t believe we’re the only thing a person needs. We believe we’re one part of a much larger system that allows mental health to thrive, and we want to be an agent of change inside the communities where people are trying to grow and understand themselves.”


The Team


Lex E. Santí, LCSW. Founder and Clinical Director. Licensed in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia.

Molly Alexander, LMSW. Child and Family Therapist. A New York clinician who specializes in trauma-informed care for children, parents, and families, and who has worked with refugee and immigrant families.

Shona Craig, DPT. Women’s Health and Embodiment. A Doctor of Physical Therapy and women’s health specialist, Craig leads the practice’s coaching and workshops for women. She is married to Santí. Coaching is non-clinical and is not psychotherapy.

Jenna Berman, LCSW. A New Jersey clinician who specializes in youth, ADHD, and anxiety in children. She and Santí are the two-person team behind A Key Therapy’s consulting work with universities and higher education institutions.


Research


Santí is completing a Doctorate of Social Work at the University of Kentucky. His research there concerns Acceptance and Motivation Inquiry (AMI), a psychometric instrument he developed that draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The instrument will undergo testing and a formal validity study over the next several years.


“Therapy works because the client teaches the therapist while the therapist teaches the client. That relationship is fluid,” Santí said. “And the search for better ways to teach and understand, ways that actually make sense to the person in front of you, is part of the work.” More here.


Hiring


A Key Therapy is hiring LMSWs. The practice offers clinical supervision toward LCSW licensure, a mindfulness-based training culture, and sustainable caseloads. Santí said supervision is the part he thinks about most.


“Supervision is constant inquiry. Not only into the client, and not only into the therapist in front of you, but into what you’re doing as a supervisor to stay grounded,” Santí said. “The work is never finished.”


“I’ve learned as much from bad supervision as from good. When a supervisor is unattuned, when they treat clinicians like lackeys, nothing good comes out of that environment. That shapes a practice as much as anything else does.”


“I want the clinicians here to have a far more expanded sense of their own care,” Santí said. “This is one of the hardest fields in the world, and it’s routinely associated with burnout. We build caseloads people can actually sustain.”


Details and applications: www.akeytherapy.co/careers


Access and insurance


A Key Therapy accepts Aetna, Cigna and Evernorth, Oscar Health, Anthem, and Carelon Behavioral Health. The practice provides superbills for out-of-network reimbursement, and a sliding scale is available by application. All services are delivered by secure telehealth, statewide in each licensed state.


The practice is based in Trumansburg and hopes to open a Main Street storefront within the year.


Profiles and directories


About A Key Therapy LCSW, PLLC


A Key Therapy LCSW, PLLC is a mindfulness-based group therapy practice based in Trumansburg, New York, serving clients in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia through secure telehealth. Founded by Lex E. Santí, LCSW, the practice offers individual and group therapy, coaching, workshops, and consulting to higher education institutions.


For media inquiries and the press page:

To schedule a 15-minute conversation with Lex E. Santí, LCSW, or to request additional information about A Key Therapy, please reach out through www.akeytherapy.co/contact. We do our best to respond within one business day.


Or, if this is for prospective clients rather than press:


The first step is a free 15-minute consultation. There are no forms to fill out ahead of time and nothing to prepare. Just reach out through www.akeytherapy.co/contact, tell us a little about what brings you here, and we will find a time to talk.


Learn more at www.akeytherapy.co.


Media contact: akeytherapy@gmail.com, (607) 288-2812



 
 
 

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