
Child Therapy
As a parent, seeing your child face emotional or behavioral challenges can be overwhelming. Child therapy offers a safe, supportive space where your child can express their feelings, develop coping skills, and build confidence. My approach focuses on meeting children where they are, using evidence-based techniques tailored to their age, developmental stage, and individual needs.
I incorporate structured play and interactive activities to engage children in a way that feels natural, while also using behavioral strategies to help them develop specific skills. Whether it is managing anxiety, improving emotional regulation, or navigating social situations, therapy is designed to reinforce positive behaviors and teach practical coping tools.
I also believe in the importance of working closely with parents. I will provide you with strategies to support your child’s progress at home and help strengthen the parent-child relationship. My goal is to empower both you and your child with tools that foster resilience, emotional well-being, and lasting growth.
Areas I Provide Therapy For
Autism: Supporting autistic children in developing social skills, communication, and coping strategies while honoring their unique perspectives and strengths.
ADHD: Helping children with attention challenges improve focus, organization, and emotional regulation through structured strategies. I also address hyperactivity by teaching self-regulation techniques and channeling energy in positive ways. Additionally, I highlight the strengths often seen in children with ADHD, such as creativity, enthusiasm, and problem-solving abilities.
Intellectual Disability: Providing tailored interventions to support cognitive, emotional, and social development in children with intellectual disabilities.
Learning Disabilities: Focusing on the emotional and behavioral challenges that often accompany learning disabilities, such as frustration, low self-esteem, and anxiety, to help children build confidence and resilience.
Developmental Disabilities: Offering support for children with a range of developmental delays and challenges, including those related to Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), to enhance communication, behavior, and adaptive skills.
Giftedness and Twice Exceptionality (2e): Helping gifted children and those who are twice exceptional navigate the unique social, emotional, and academic challenges they may face.
Selective Mutism: Assisting children who are anxious with speaking in certain situations, using gradual, supportive techniques including skills from the Social Communication Anxiety Treatment® (S-CAT®) program to build confidence and communication skills.
Chronic Illness and Medical Complexity: Supporting children in coping with the emotional and psychological challenges that come with chronic health conditions, including Type 1 diabetes (T1D), cancer/leukemia, seizure disorders/epilepsy, and cystic fibrosis (CF).
School Issues: Addressing academic struggles, learning difficulties, and school-related stressors that impact a child's emotional well-being and performance.
Bullying: Helping children cope with the emotional effects of bullying, build resilience, and develop strategies for handling peer conflicts.
School Refusal: Helping children overcome anxiety and other factors that contribute to school avoidance, promoting a positive return to learning.
Adoption: Supporting children in navigating identity, belonging, and family dynamics related to their adoption experience.
Attachment Disorders: Helping children develop secure, healthy relationships by addressing challenges related to trust, bonding, and emotional connection.
Trauma and PTSD: Providing trauma-informed care to help children process and heal from difficult or traumatic experiences.
Social Challenges: Supporting children in developing effective social skills, building friendships, and navigating social interactions with confidence.
Social Anxiety: Helping children manage anxiety in social situations, reduce fear of judgment, and build comfort in interacting with peers.
OCD: Evidence-based support to help children face fears, reduce compulsions, and build confidence using approaches like Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP/ExRP).
Anxiety: Treatment to help children gradually face fears, reduce avoidance, and build coping skills through structured, evidence-based approaches.
Behavioral Challenges: Addressing challenging behaviors with strategies that promote positive behavior and emotional regulation.
ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder): Child-centered behavioral strategies to reduce mealtime anxiety, build comfort with new foods, and support healthy growth, using approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for ARFID (CBT-AR) and Family-Based Treatment for ARFID (FBT-ARFID).
Pica: In collaboration with medical professionals, focus on identifying underlying causes of child eating non-food items and using behavioral strategies to promote safe habits.
Grief: Helping children process the death of a loved one and find healthy ways to express their emotions.
My Approach
I take an integrative approach, adapting therapy to meet your child’s unique needs. This means using different techniques to create a personalized plan that supports their growth and development. Some of the methods I use include:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): An evidence-based approach that helps children understand how their thoughts, feelings, and actions are connected. By learning to recognize and change unhelpful thoughts, kids can develop practical skills to manage anxiety, anger, and other challenges. We use fun, engaging activities to make these concepts relatable and easy to apply in everyday life.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): This evidence-based approach teaches children how to handle big emotions without feeling overwhelmed. Through mindfulness, emotional regulation, and social skills, kids learn how to stay calm, manage frustration, and improve relationships with friends and family.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): An evidence-based approach that helps children understand that it is okay to have difficult feelings, but those feelings do not have to control what they do. Kids learn to focus on what matters most to them, such as friendships, hobbies, and goals, while building resilience and flexibility to handle life’s ups and downs.
Coping Cat Program: A structured, evidence-based CBT program designed to help children manage anxiety by teaching them how to recognize anxious feelings and develop coping strategies. This program also includes a parent component, offering guidance and tools to support your child's progress and reinforce skills at home.
Play Therapy: Uses play as a way for children to express emotions, process experiences, and develop problem-solving skills in a safe, supportive environment. I also incorporate behavioral strategies into play to teach specific skills, helping children learn and practice positive behaviors in a fun, engaging way.
Exposure Therapy: An evidence-based technique that gradually helps children face and overcome fears in a controlled and supportive way, building confidence and reducing anxiety over time.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP/ExRP): A structured, evidence-based treatment for OCD that helps kids gradually face fears and resist compulsive behaviors with support every step of the way.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT): This evidence-based method combines mindfulness practices with cognitive strategies to help children become more aware of their thoughts and feelings. Through simple, age-appropriate activities like guided breathing, visualization, and body awareness exercises, children learn to stay present, manage stress, and regulate their emotions.
Behavioral Activation: An evidence-based approach that encourages participation in positive, meaningful activities to improve mood and motivation, particularly helpful for children experiencing depression.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT): An evidence-based method that provides children with tools to process and heal from traumatic experiences. This approach combines cognitive-behavioral techniques with trauma-sensitive interventions to help children make sense of their experiences in a safe, supportive environment. Parents are actively involved in the process, learning how to support their child’s recovery and reinforce coping skills at home.
Regulation-Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C): As a Level I RFP-C trained provider, I offer this evidence-based approach that helps children improve emotional regulation by understanding and managing their emotional responses. This therapy also includes a parent component, working closely with caregivers to support their child’s emotional growth and reinforce skills at home.
BrainWise: A program that teaches "thinking skills" to help children make better decisions, improve problem-solving abilities, and manage their emotions more effectively.
Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders for Children (UP-C): An evidence-based, flexible approach designed to help children who experience a range of emotional challenges like anxiety and depression. This method focuses on teaching kids how to recognize and understand their emotions, develop healthy coping skills, and manage overwhelming feelings. Through fun, age-appropriate activities, children learn to face difficult situations with confidence and emotional awareness.
Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS): An evidence-based method developed by Dr. Ross Greene that emphasizes collaboration between children and caregivers to solve problems and reduce behavioral issues. This approach focuses on understanding and addressing the root causes of behavior, helping children feel heard while building skills to manage challenges more effectively.
Problem-Solving Therapy: An evidence-based approach that helps children learn structured approaches to solve everyday challenges, building confidence and reducing stress.
Therapeutic Values
All of my approaches are:
Neurodiversity-Affirming: I support the unique ways children think, learn, and experience the world, creating an environment that values their individuality.
Solution-Focused: Therapy is goal-oriented, helping your child build practical skills and strategies that lead to meaningful, positive change.
Strength-Based: I focus on identifying and building on your child’s strengths, fostering confidence and resilience.
Culturally Sensitive: I respect and honor the cultural background, values, and experiences of each child and family, ensuring therapy is inclusive and relevant to your unique needs.
Trauma-Informed: I create a safe, supportive space where children feel secure, recognizing the impact of past experiences and ensuring therapy is sensitive to their needs.
Together, we can support your child in building the skills and confidence they need to navigate life’s challenges with resilience and joy.