Areas of Expertise

  • Depression
  • Anxiety Disorders
    •  Generalized Anxiety Disorder
    •  Panic Disorder
    •  Social Anxiety
    •  School Anxiety/Refusal
    •  Specific Phobias
    •  Agoraphobia
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
  • Oppositional Defiant Disorder
  • Relationship or interpersonal stress
  • Emotion regulation difficulties
  • Borderline Personality Disorder
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Stress management
  • Body image and eating concerns

Therapeutic Approach

Cognitive Behavior Therapy:

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is an evidenced-based treatment proven effective for a range of problems and diagnoses in children, adolescents, and adults.  The hallmarks of this treatment are a focus on current thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are negatively impacting quality of life and, after thorough assessment as to those thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and what functions they serve, learning and applying new skills to change the impact.  This begins with education on the ways in which thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are linked and then learning and implementing tools such as cognitive restructuring, problem-solving, distress tolerance skills, activity monitoring, sleep hygiene strategies, and ways to inhibit unhelpful urges.  For anxiety treatment, exposure to feared stimuli or alarming physical sensations is often utilized so that clients can overcome fears and phobias.  Exposure is conducted in a graduated and supportive way.  CBT is time-limited, solution focused, and collaborative - the therapist and client are active problem-solvers together working towards mutually agreed upon goals.  CBT has been successfully applied to a wide range of disorders including depression, anxiety disorders (Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Agoraphobia, Panic Disorder, etc.), attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorders, impulse-control disorders, PTSD, bipolar disorders, and so forth.  To maximize gains and speed improvement, clients are given strategies to practice outside of session.  Clients can benefit from CBT as a stand-alone treatment, and research also supports CBT as a complement to medication.  CBT for children and adolescents often incorporates work with parents to help support progress at home. 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy:

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidenced-based therapy developed to treat extreme emotion dysregulation.  DBT is the gold-standard treatment for suicidal ideation, behaviors, and non-suicidal self-injury and has also been successfully applied to many other life problems, including significant depression, anxiety, and anger/explosivity.  If behavioral urges when sad, anxious and/or angry significantly impede having the life that you want and even at times lead to feeling hopeless about change, DBT may be the appropriate treatment.  It is comprehensive, involving both individual therapy and skills training, the latter of which is typically delivered in a group format.  While I do not conduct groups at this time, I will work with you to find a group near by that teaches the DBT skills.  For adolescents, the skills are taught to the family - the adolescent and parents.  DBT is a type of cognitive behavior therapy that incorporates both change-focused strategies and acceptance-focused, providing the balance needed to weather life's storms and gain control over emotions, rather than feeling as though emotions are controlling you.  Specifically, the treatment aims to teach skills to increase mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and flexible thinking.  It is a well-researched treatment with decades of evidence to support it's use.  I can provide the individual therapy and phone coaching elements of the treatment and in limited cases, can provide skills training in a one-on-one format; however, I do not offer a comprehensive program at this time that includes group skills training.  We can discuss options for ways to receive this part of the treatment.

Mindfulness:

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” - Jon Kabat Zinn.  Mindfulness has recently gained much attention in popular news as a means to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and even physical pain.  Research has shown that learning mindfulness strategies, to help one take control of their mind and learn to tolerate distress in the moment without prolonging suffering, can act both as a stand-alone treatment and can be a useful adjunct to many therapies.  I often incorporate mindfulness techniques into other CBT work.  Mindfulness can be applied across the lifespan and be particularly helpful in family and couples work. 

Trauma-Focused Therapy:

There are several evidenced-based approaches to trauma-focused work.   I have training in Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT) for application with children who have experienced traumatic events and in Skills Training in Affect and Interpersonal Regulation and Narrative Story Telling (STAIR NST) for adults, in addition to training and familiarity with several other trauma treatments, such as Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT).   The approach would be tailored to meet your specific needs and treatment goals.

MODALITIES

Individual Therapy:

In individual therapy, the client and therapist work together to set treatment goals and develop a treatment plan.  The client is given practice exercises to take into his/her life outside of the therapy office.  If deemed helpful, individual therapy may be supported by occasional family or couple sessions.

Family Therapy:

In some cases, working with the whole family is recommended.  There are many problems that affect the family system as a whole and working together to provide skills and strategies to all members may be the best fit.  In particular, family therapy can help improve communication, decrease conflict, and strengthen relationships.  This can either be the primary modality of treatment or a complement to individual therapy. 

Parenting:

No two children are alike and parenting can be the toughest job of all.  Often parents need support in how to effectively respond to their individual child, particularly if their child is struggling with a mental illness.  I work with parents using evidenced-based techniques to improve structure at home, increase effective communication, decrease conflict, and increase positive time spent together as a family.  These skills can be helpful for parents of young children all the way through living together with your young adult.  In particular, I have expertise working with parents of teens and young adults who are still living at home and where conflict is high. 

Couples Therapy:

Couples therapy can be useful for couples at any stage of their relationship. My focus is on helping couples improve communication skills, problem-solving skills, validation, and strengthening the relationship.  I generally incorporate the work of Dr. Alan Fruzetti who has adapted DBT principles for improving couple relationships.