Neurodivergence

Neurodivergence, or neurodiversity, refers to people whose brains work differently than what our society considers “typical.” While neurodivergence is not harmful, our world is not always set up for neurodivergent people to succeed. My approach to neurodivergence is to help children and their families understand themselves, learn strategies for tolerating the world around us, and learn how to advocate for their needs.

Twice-Exceptional

Twice-Exceptional (2e) people are those who are gifted/talented with a co-occuring learning or mental health challenge. The field of Twice-Exceptionality is rapidly growing, however 2e individuals are often hard to spot. I have been serving 2e children and adolescents since 2017, and have worked at some of New York’s most reputable 2e programs including The Quad Manhattan, FlexSchool, and Melissa Sornik, LCSW PLLC.

LGBTQ+

LGBTQ+ and Queer youth are an expanding population that I have been working with since 2013. In addition to helping children naviagte exploring their gender and sexuality, I provide parents and families with the information and tools they need to best support their queer child.

Social Emotional Skill Building

For many children, social emotional skills do not come naturally, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be taught! Social skills and emotion regulation techniques can be taught in therapy, in sneaky and fun ways. Some of my favorite resources for this topic include Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking® and Ross Greene’s Collaborative and Proactive Solutions©.

Parenting and Family Therapy

Parenting complex children can be incredibly challenging, and nobody writes a manual for your specific child. Together, we can come up with strategies and tools that meet your child’s individualized needs. In family therapy, we can heal familial relationships and build trust between parents and children.

Anxiety and OCD

In today’s world, everybody experiences symptoms of anxiety. We use Cognitive Behavioral coping skills and Dialectical Behavioral distress tolerance skills to teach children how to manage their own emotions. For OCD and specific phobias, I use a combination of these techniques as well as Exposure and Response Prevention to address intrusive thoughts, obsessions, and compulsions.

Behavioral Interventions

In order to address your child’s behavior, there are tools that can be used to target their motivation to change. My approach to behavioral interventions starts with understanding why your child is behaving the way they are, and that if they could meet expectations, they would. By working with your child, we can use extrinsic motivation to help increase their intrinsic motivation to succeed.

Executive Functioning

Executive functioning difficulties are a symptom of many different diagnoses across the lifespan. The 12 executive functions include organization, planning, time management, working memory, task initiation and persistence, response inhibition, affect regulation, meta-cognition, response inhibition, goal directed persistence, sustained attention, and social cognition. While these skills may not come naturally to you or your child, they can be taught in therapy.