Anxiety / OCD

Excessive worry, fear, and nervousness can make it more difficult to enjoy everyday activities.  Individuals who are struggling with intrusive OCD thoughts often develop ‘rituals’ to reduce anxiety about a feared outcome, which can become time-consuming and disruptive.   Anxiety is often associated with insufficient sleep, muscle tension, and poor focus.  In children, anxiety may lead to avoidance, refusal behaviors, and an inability to meet age-appropriate responsibilities. 

Anxiety and OCD can be successfully treated.

Exposure Therapy is considered the gold standard treatment for these conditions.  Exposure therapy involves gradually facing fears in a variety of ways, with the goal of learning to manage anxiety without avoidance or rituals.  During the process of gradual exposure, individuals learn that anxious feelings are both manageable and temporary.  With children, parents are actively involved throughout the treatment process to learn how to coach their child during exposures that occur between sessions and ongoing.

 

Offering individualized treatment for concerns of:

  • Generalized Anxiety

  • OCD

  • Phobias & Fears

  • Perfectionism

  • Social Anxiety

  • Separation Anxiety

  • Panic Disorder

  • Agoraphobia

  • Selective Mutism

 Eating Disorders

Difficulties with eating and weight can affect people of all ages, genders, body shapes, and backgrounds.  Many times, eating disorders develop unintentionally due to a combination of multiple factors.  Treatment of eating disorders is tailored to individual needs, with the goal of restoring both physical and emotional health. 

I have experience and specialized knowledge providing Family-Based Treatment (the Maudsley Model) for children and teenagers who have lost weight because of their eating disorder.  This treatment involves parents taking the lead in helping their child return to a healthy weight.  Research tells us that this approach helps kids gain weight faster than other types of treatment.  Throughout this process, I work closely with your child’s primary care provider to ensure a comprehensive and collaborative treatment approach.

 

For those who are medically stable, treatment is offered for concerns of:

  • Anorexia Nervosa

  • Bulimia Nervosa

  • Binge Eating Disorder

  • Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)

  • Rumination Disorder

  • Picky Eating

  • Weight loss due to other factors

behavior management

Figuring out the most effective approach to parenting can be overwhelming – especially for parents of children with challenging behaviors.  Dealing with frequent misbehavior or emotional outbursts can be exhausting, but you don’t have to figure everything out on your own.  Using highly researched parenting strategies, my therapy services are designed to address these issues so that you feel more confident and consistent in managing difficult behaviors.

I work closely with parents for three reasons:  

  1. You are the most important person in your child’s life.

  2. You have the greatest ability to influence change.

  3. You know your child best.

My approach begins with gaining an in-depth understanding of your child’s specific emotional or behavioral problems you would like to improve.  We will then develop an individualized plan to address these concerns and discuss specific strategies that you can begin using right away.  

 

Parent training can help:

  • Improve cooperation

  • Decrease outbursts

  • Improve parent-child relationships

  • Decrease misbehavior / defiance

  • Improve emotion regulation

  • Promote age-appropriate behavior

  • Reduce family stress