In life there are no one size fits all solutions. 

Children and Adolescents: I can offer individual, family, group, couples and parent-child therapy.  Toddlers and preschoolers use play and their behavior to communicate with adults in their lives.  Play therapy is an important tool to assist young clients in my practice.  For elementary students, along with talking, I make use of art therapy strategies to further the treatment process.  Adolescents often don't like to just sit and talk about their problems.  Helping them further their self-narrative or the way they organize the story of their lives can sometimes assist them in identifying what troubles them most and how they want to write the next chapter in their lives.  Parents can play a huge role in helping their child to find better ways with coping with life stressors.  Some families find working together, at one time and in one place can help everyone get on a better path.  

Adults: Today, everyone is facing challenges. Traditional talking therapies have become more refined, shorter-term, and focused on finding a better way.  What are those things that are interfering with your relationships?  What role does the way you think about the issues play? Are there behavioral strategies that individuals who are successful use that you haven't tried? How are you expressing your needs to your partner? What lessons that you learned as a young child are you holding on to that don't serve you well?  The therapies integrated into treatments that I offer include: cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and psychodynamic.  Let's work together to find the right balance, a treatment tailored to you.

Men's Issues: Contemporary society can be a confusing place for guys.  Our biology is pulling for old ways of being while at the same time, we want to be strong, supportive partners and fathers.  Research shows that men and women often experience the same disorders quite differently.  Guys, if it feels like a struggle and you want things to improve.  I'm someone who really gets it.  Counseling isn't all about sharing your feelings, there are things you can do today to improve yourself, your health, your relationships, your job performance, and the level of success your find.  It's a different way of thinking.

Couples: My approach to working with married, dating and parenting couples integrates cognitive, behavioral, experiential and family-of-origin approaches.  Chose what's right for you and your partner, learn the dance that only the two of you know.  If it hasn't worked well in the past, let's restore the relationship to the level of magnetism that brought you together.    

When you take your car in for service, it is reassuring that the mechanic finds the problem through a diagnostic test.  Otherwise, you are left with the mechanic's best guess.  

Difficulties in mental wellness can be similar.  For example, many mental conditions overlap with or exhibit similarities with other diagnoses.  Also, you know how descriptions of conditions are sometimes hard to distinguish from normal life change stresses and typical developmental transitions.  

If you don't have a good sense of what the source of you or your child's challenges are, let's talk about creating a tailored set of referal questions that can be answered through testing that will shed light on what seems to be the root of the difficulties, the obstacles present as well as your natural strengths and tendencies that may be underutilized. 

The most common forms testing requested are: difficulties with optimal performance, attention, learning and behavioral problems.  Conditions like learning disabilities and attention deficits are quite common and can cause so much unnecessary struggle and distress.  When you know how best you or your child learns and functions, you can set up situations for success!  

In consulting on testing, I draw from my years of experience doing direct testing from a neuropsychological perspective, which means that the goal of testing is to pick measures that map on to specific brain areas (a.k.a., Broadman  areas) associated with identified cognitive functions.  When your brain is wired differently from the societal-average, cognitive symptoms and behavioral difficulties can signal that you work best using alternative approaches.  Testing can isolate problems (for example) with working memory as opposed to attention or non-verbal processing difficulties.  This clarification points toward how to help you move forward efficiently.

The stresses of adult life can be similar.  Are the root difficulties best thought of as depression, anxiety, attention deficits, social isolation, or misalignment of your responsibilities with your goals?  Testing can be an aide in this situation as well.

Not everyone needs testing, but it is one more powerful tool that I can help you be ready to access.

I offer school consultation services for clients seen in my practice. Fees do apply. 

I provide training and seminars to schools, parent groups, health providers, and community organizations on a variety of topics.  A brief list includes:

• Non-verbal learning disabilities
• The latest in knowledge, testing, and intervention for behavioral disturbances and AD/HD
• I provide trainings on paternal depression, building father-friendly work and buisiness environments and ways that community programs can engage fathers. 
• I am also a facilitator of several fatherhood programs such as: Boot Camp for New Dads, the Caring Dad's Program, 24/7 Dad, Inside-Out Dad, and the Nurturing Fathers Program.
• While not up yet, I have several fun and educational websites for dads om the works.  The first www.BeAGreatDad.org will be a way for dads to connect, share resources and learn what is new in research on fathers.  The second www.RealDadsRealDepression.org will focus on sharing information about fathers who develop depression and anxiety while they are expecting a child or have a new baby at home (i.e., through the first year of the child's life).