Child / Family Issues / School Psychology

Are you worried about your child
(or, at your wit's end)?

Is your child:

Overly worried and fearful?
Sad or depressed?
Shy and withdrawn?
Intrusive and aggressive?
Oppositional?
Inappropriately attention seeking?
Suffering from feelings of inadequacy?
Vengeful?
Manipulative and controlling?

Many children (and parents) at some time need assistance in their adjustment to the challenges and troubles of daily living and growing up. Sometimes, even the most loving and well-meaning parents may see their children behaving in ways that clearly indicate that something is not "right."

Every parent wants the best for their children, and would gladly do anything to insure their safety, health, happiness, and success. Yet, when these clear signs of a problem appear, they are puzzled and concerned, sometimes feeling both clueless, and helpless. "Where did this come from?" they may ask, and, more importantly, "What can I do about it so that my child can get back on the right track as soon as possible?"

This is where I can be of help!

Throughout my career as a psychologist and psychotherapist, I have helped not only individual children and families address and resolve such challenges, but have also been instrumental in developing and implementing innovative school-based programs that on a large scale have helped children to make significant improvements in learning abilities and behavioral adjustment.

As parents, you have more power to change your child's life for the better than any doctor or psychotherapist. You just need the right understanding and the right tools to do the best job you can.

I can assist you to help your child by giving you the understanding and tools you need to do the job right by helping you to:

Understand the hidden "messages" that the child is sending via the inappropriate or problematic behavior (which is the only way they know HOW to send those messages that something in their world is "wrong")
Explore the past events and circumstances which may have contributed to the development of the problem
Assess the current state of affairs in the household
Provide practical, loving and effective strategies and techniques to address the problem as efficiently as possible
Monitor progress and adjust strategies as necessary to insure optimal problem resolution and improvement.

Who ya gonna call? "Bratbusters!"

Move over, "Super Nannies" -- I champion authoritative, not authoritarian parenting strategies, and help parents to address and resolve tough behavioral problems with "fair but firm" discipline. Rather than seeing children for individual therapy sessions, I prefer to work with parents, helping them in

understanding the causes of misbehavior
establishing clear behavioral guidelines
modifying the home environment and their response style to misbehaviors.

The keys to emotional growth and behavioral maturity are specific, consistent consequences for misbehavior coupled with frequent reinforcement for positive behaviors ("catch 'em being good!!") and, of course, lots of love. This approach has been highly effective in transforming many a home beset by frustrating, disruptive behavior patterns.

Early Childhood a specialty

I have been a psychological consultant for preschool programs for over 20 years: providing evaluative services (identifying children at-risk for requiring special education services) and therapeutic interventions for preschool children and their parents and teachers. Having done innumerable sessions of individual and group psychotherapy and play therapy with children, I have found the most effective intervention is working with the parents and teachers in expanding their understanding of childhood problems, practicing appropriate responses to those problems, and modifying the home and classroom environment to be conducive to healing and growth. This approach has both accelerated and maximized successful outcomes.

The most important and influential therapists a child can have are their parents and their teachers!

The methods work ... if YOU do!

Here is some information on innovative programs for students that I have developed.