It can be so difficult to see your child struggle, and our emotions can sometimes get in the way of finding solutions. My role is to help not just the child but the parent(s), offering skill building or coaching in a non-judgmental environment. Over time, both children and parents reap the rewards of successfully learning and applying new skills and becoming empowered.
I work in collaboration with all the people who are critical to helping children thrive: parents, school staff, doctors, extended family and/or community members. Often helping families identify and access resources is a part of my role as well.
My roots working with children go back to structured and goal-oriented play therapy. My training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy may also be applied, most often with children over age 7. I also use EMDR therapy where appropriate.
Issues I have successfully treated in children:
- Anxiety (OCD, social anxiety, phobias, fear of medical treatment, school refusal, separation)
- Depression
- Trauma
- Loss related to divorce, death, illness or other life changes
- Behavior problems
- Sibling conflict
- Disordered eating
- Sleep disturbance
Adolescence is a wonderful and challenging time of life. The brain is going through important changes that create an intensity unique to this life stage (spanning ages 12-24). With these changes adolescents and parents can find themselves struggling with problems that either did not exist before or have intensified. It is a time in which the rewards can be great. I enjoy seeing an adolescent master tasks of increased responsibility and improve their self direction and relationships with family and friends. Dialectic Behavioral Therapy is powerful in treating many issues adolescents struggle with, including intense emotions, self harm, suicidal ideation, eating disorders and substance use. I use CBT and EMDR with adolescents as well. Deciding whether to integrate these evidence-based treatments is a part of the assessment process.
Some of the issues I have successfully treated in Adolescents:
- Anxiety (OCD, social anxiety, phobias, school fears)
- Depression
- Trauma
- Eating disorders
- Self Harm
- Perfectionistic thinking
- Emotional regulation
- Loss related to divorce, death, illness or other life changes
- Sexuality
- Culture conflict within the family or community
I work with adults across a broad age range, from late adolescence up, as they move through the ongoing developmental stages of adulthood. A person’s psychological make-up is like a house: it needs a strong foundation to be structurally sound. Often people come in for help with a specific problem. Perhaps it is a simple matter of helping them to improve their skills in order to achieve a given goal. Perhaps they are struggling with a pattern that has, over a longer period of time, interfered with their ability to accomplish their goals. Or perhaps, especially in cases of significant trauma, the foundation needs shoring up or re-building.
I have seen the powerful impact that DBT, CBT and EMDR can have in helping adults to be more at ease in their lives. Together, we decide how to approach the work, integrating these evidenced-based methods as the individual and the situation require.
Some of the issues I have successfully treated in Adults:
- Anxiety (OCD, social anxiety, panic attacks, phobias )
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Dissociation
- Depression
- Eating Disorders
- Emotion Regulation
- Emotionally-driven impulse issues
