Psychological Services

Evidence-Based Psychotherapy–Teaching Skills for Emotional and Behavioral Control

Evidence-based psychotherapy includes any approaches related to Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT), Behavioral Activation for depression, Exposure Therapy for anxiety, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for emotional dysregulation or significant mood swings, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for managing internal distress or thoughts that are overwhelming–or an integration of these skills-based approaches to helping children.

The straightforward version is that children and adults are taught strategies to shift their thinking, accept and regulate their emotions, and take steps toward reaching important goals.  The result is lower anxiety and mood improvement.

Psychoeducation & Consultation

Given the normalizing, non-stigmatizing philosophy of the practice, dedicated time is spent educating clients about the issues affecting their lives versus “treating” disorders.  This knowledge is an important part of the psychoeducational process.  Greater understanding helps clients begin to shift their perspective, alter behavioral patterns, reach their goals, and improve their emotional well-being.

Psychoeducational & Neuropsychological Assessment

Testing for children, adolescents, or young adults is conducted to learn about their profile of strengths and weaknesses, determine any academic areas in need of support, identify learning issues or differences, examine executive functioning capabilities and discern presence of clinical weakness or difference (such as ADHD). Recommendations are carefully tailored toward the individual’s particular needs and teacher/school collaboration is available as a follow-up service to help implement a plan for bolstering the child’s success.

Functional ADHD Assessment

It is not often necessary for a child to undergo a complete neuropsychological evaluation in order to make a diagnosis of ADHD and design an intervention plan. A shorter process involving rating scales to parents, teachers, and the child is administered.  The assessment can be extremely helpful in understanding limitations or non-conformist tendencies the child may have and how they impact many areas of his or her life, such as school, studying, maintaining friendships, and getting along with family members.

Parent Training & Consultation

Often, parents are looking for advice on addressing particular child-rearing concerns, such as behavior issues, emotional struggles, or organizational challenges. Here, family dynamics are explored, parent’s discipline styles are looked at and discussed, and a complete understanding of child variables is developed in order to support the parent’s ability to provide the best care for their child.

Child Behavior Management & Positive Parenting

Related to the above, often the goal of parenting is to positively shape children’s behavior in some way. Often when children misbehave, there are underlying reasons. It is critical to fully understand what the behavior means, where it is coming from, and how to “read between the lines,” rather than focus too much on the behavior, in order to best guide the child toward positive change or personal growth. Parent coaching incorporates learning skills for validating children, listening well, and conveying understanding and sensitivity.