All children experience emotional and behavioral challenges, to varying degrees.  How do you know if your child is simply going through a phase that he or she will outgrow, or if the problems are symptoms worthy of professional attention? As an experienced child psychologist and parent myself, I can help you determine what is hindering your child's psychological growth and whether he or she might benefit from treatment.  

 

• My areas of expertise

• Some of my areas of specialization for children include:

• Anxiety (such as around separation, school transitions, excessive worrying)

• Grief and loss

• Adoption (domestic and international)

• Divorce

• Emotional disregulation

• Conflicts with peers and social exclusion

 

I treat children between the ages of 3-18 years.

 

This list is by no means exhaustive and I encourage you to contact me directly for more specific concerns.

 

 

My approach with children:

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The approach I have found to be most effective for children in my practice is a careful combination of play therapy, ongoing parenting consultation and, where appropriate, collaboration with school to create behavioral supports for the child.    

 

In therapy, children naturally learn and express themselves through play, and use it constructively to work through psychological distress.  In fact, children are able to tell us about their inner world through play much more openly than they can through simply talking or answering concrete questions. While it may appear at first that your child and the clinician are "just playing", the clinician is trained to pick up a whole range of important factors through play, including what they may be anxious or sad about, their feelings about family relationships, school, and major life events, as well as their emotional maturity, cognitive functioning, attentional capacities, and ability to integrate sensory information, just to name a few.

 

It's important that both children and parents feel comfortable with the child's therapist.  When you meet with the child therapist, you should not only have a strong sense that the therapist "gets" your child, but that he or she also understands and addresses you in a way that feels supportive and constructive.    Please feel free to contact me to see if we are a good fit for consultation and treatment.