Services

Parent/Caregiver Consultation

In a consultation session, I will meet with you to discuss your questions and concerns about your child, find out more about your child’s history and life story, and then give you some ideas about what to do next.  I might recommend mental health therapy, another type of intervention or service, a brief psychological assessment, or a comprehensive psychological assessment.  After a consultation, you will leave with a clear idea of next steps.  If you then choose to work with me for a brief or comprehensive assessment, we will have already completed the initial appointment and can move forward with the remaining steps.

Comprehensive Psychological Assessment

This is what doctors, therapists, or schools usually mean when they refer for a psychological assessment.  It includes an initial meeting with parents/caregivers to clarify what questions you hope the assessment will answer, and talk about your child’s history, life story, and current challenges.  It also includes administration of several psychological tests - I meet with your child one-on-one for several hours to administer these - and multiple parent- and teacher-completed questionnaires about how your child is functioning at home and at school.  I then pull all of this information together into a formal psychological report, including test scores, diagnoses, and treatment recommendations, that you can take with you to other professionals who work with your child.  For example, you may choose to share the report with your child’s therapist, psychiatrist, school, pediatrician, etc.  I will also have a feedback meeting with you (and, if desired, with your child) to explain all of the results and recommendations. I am experienced in testing for specific concerns such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, trauma-related disorders, and anxiety and mood disorders, but I can also work with you to answer more general questions, such as “Why is my child so angry all the time?”, “Why isn’t she making progress in therapy?”, or “Why is he having so many problems in school?”

Brief Psychological Assessment

Not all children who are referred for psychological assessment need the in-depth testing described above.  Some questions and concerns can be answered with more limited information - perhaps one or two tests with the child, as well as parent and/or teacher rating scales.  Brief psychological assessment includes the same initial parent/caregiver consultation and final feedback meeting, but the testing session is much shorter.  Additionally, rather than writing a traditional psychological report, I will write a feedback letter addressed to you, the parent/caregiver, which will include diagnoses and recommendations, but does not contain as much detail on background history and test interpretation as a traditional psychological report.  Parents and other professionals tell me that these letters are easy to read and understand, but still contain the information needed to document the assessment results. 

Therapy

I provide therapy for children and adolescents, with significant involvement from their parents or caregivers. I am experienced in treating depression, anxiety, OCD, disruptive behavior disorders, traumatic stress, and adjustment difficulties, among other things. I am certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and am also experienced in a variety of other cognitive-behavioral approaches as well as parent/caregiver behavior management support. In general, the younger the child, the more time I spend with parents/caregivers to give you the tools that you need to support your child at home. Even with older kids and teens, I check in with parents regularly about how to provide support and reinforce the skills your child may be learning in therapy.

Which service is right for me?

Great question!  If you’re not sure, I recommend starting with a consultation.  That way, we can talk in more detail about your child and family and then I can make a specific recommendation based on what your goals are.  The consultation meeting also serves as the initial session for any of my other services, so there is nothing to lose by starting there.