My Services

I love working with children, but this website is not for kids. It's for grown-ups. It's for grown-ups who have noticed that their child worries a lot. It's for grown-ups who have a child with outsized emotions that may have outsized power in their family's life. It's for grown-ups whose child's worries or big feelings are getting in the way of their ability to be a kid in all the ways they need to be a kid: to learn, to make friends, to enjoy being with their family, to have new experiences.

If you're a grown-up and you're taking care of a child like this, welcome.

Undoubtedly, you've been doing everything you can to help your child with their anxiety, to help them face what scares them, to help them dial down their super big emotions. But you've decided that it's time to bring in another set of eyes, someone to partner with you so that your child can enjoy their childhood in all the ways they deserve to enjoy it - and soon. When they can do that - when your child can settle down their minds, feel feelings that are the right size for the moment, and react to situations in proportion -- their relationships improve. Family life improves.

There are two clinical models I use in my work, both with kids as well as with adults. One is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT is widely considered the gold standard of treatment for people who suffer from anxiety: generalized anxiety, social anxiety, obsessive thinking, compulsive behavior, amongst other types of anxiety. CBT is also an evidence-based treatment for depression and trauma. There are other treatments that I draw on in my work that have their roots in CBT, like exposure response prevention (ERP), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and the Unified Protocol for the Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP). These are all treatments that have a strong base of evidence to support their use with both children and adults.

I use CBT and related therapies in my work not only because they have evidence to back them up, but because they are typically shorter-term treatments. That means that people get relief faster. I enjoy this approach to working with children in particular because it is highly interactive. It involves giving kids a greater sense of ownership over their feelings, thoughts, and actions. Watching that process unfold is incredibly gratifying: for me, for children, and for their parents.

The second model I use most frequently in my work is Internal Family Systems (IFS). IFS is one of the clinical models on which the movies “Inside Out” and “Inside Out 2” were based. The films beautifully depict the central tenet of IFS: we all have parts of us that have a role to play in our psychological systems. And when any of our parts take over – like an anxious part, or an angry part, or a critical part – we often behave in ways that don’t align with the way we want to show up in the world. This can affect our relationships with our families, friends, coaches, colleagues, spouses, and so on. IFS helps people identify, describe, and understand their internal family of “parts,” and in so doing can give them tools to access parts of themselves that can help them get through tough moments in more adaptive ways.

IFS has been recognized as an evidence-based practice by the National Registry for Evidence-based Programs and Practices, and can be used to address trauma, anxiety, depression, and general emotional dysregulation.

In addition to working directly with children, I provide extensive parent consultation. Parents sometimes come for an initial consultation with concerns about their child and learn that their child is actually okay, but that maybe they could use some targeted support with a particular aspect of parenting or co-parenting. I use techniques like behavioral parent training to help parents help their kids with their social, emotional, and behavioral development. I also lean heavily on Internal Family Systems and attachment theory to help parents strengthen their connection to and relationship with their child.

So, welcome. Take a look around and learn more about my practice. Under the dropdown menu, you'll find more information about:

I use the following treatment models most frequently in my work, which you can learn more about by clicking any of the links below:

And, if you have a problem that I am not best equipped to help you solve, I'm always happy to refer you to someone who has expertise in that area.