Services
Individual Counseling
Untreated mental health issues like anxiety, depression & low self-esteem can lead to negative coping behaviors that come with high price-tags.
For over 25 years, I've provided clients with support that emphasizes their strengths. Good therapy is rooted in positivity and empathy; progress shows through change and growth in the way you experience and use feelings, relate to others and cope with stress.
I employ a variety of approaches that are customized to the needs of each client. My counseling style is relational and collaborative. I lean toward a focus on the present - what’s currently happening in your life. But I believe that the systems and communities in which we were raised and currently exist have a big impact on our current thinking, decisions, behaviors and expectations. These include societal, familial, community, and religious/spiritual experiences. Being conscious of these frameworks and experiences can help us anticipate how we respond to certain type of challenges. It should inform the pace of therapy and the introduction of new types of actions and coping skills (i.e. thinking, communication, stress management, regulation).
This work is centered around guiding people toward living life in better alignment with their own core values, goals & beliefs.
Counseling for Adolescents
There are unique challenges and stressors facing today’s youth. In some ways, children may be more restricted and protected from experiences that allow them to explore risks and test limits than those in previous generations. On the other hand, their exposure to information through technology and media - from the youngest of ages - is unprecedented and, despite the most conscientious parents, minimally regulated.
Nationally, conditions like anxiety, emotional disregulation and depression are on the rise among children and teens. It will take time for us, as a society, to understand the impact of current trends and societal shifts on our children’s development.
My approach to counseling young people is sensitive to the various “systems” in which they live - such as family, friends, school and their online media platforms (including gaming). This means that I inquire about their experiences with all of these systems to conceptualize the focus of treatment and help them examine their unique responses to triggers, stress or trauma.
Having decades of experience working with teens and my training in adolescent psychology, I am adept at assessing their social/emotional skills and engagement in consequential thinking; building trust and creating rapport; creating buy-in for actionable change regarding maladaptive coping patterns (such as substance abuse, self-injury, social/school avoidance); and most of all, helping young clients better understand their own needs in relation to others.
I strongly believe that confidentiality and parent engagement in treatment are not mutually exclusive. Both are essential, in most cases. I am skilled at fostering impactful interventions that support the client while strengthening communication, trust and parent-child bond.
Parent Coaching
I have a basic premise that underlies my approach as a therapist: almost all “negative” behaviors stem from an attempt get normal needs met.
Most children don’t “think about thinking,” which is a developmental skill that comes with maturity. Younger children’s brains are not wired for this. They do have an enviable capacity to live in the moment which we adults can learn from. But moments add up over time. Behaviors and relational interactions that are attempts to fill unmet needs (around feelings like safety, belonging and control) are either reinforced or not. If they are reinforced, the child who is stressed may become more attached to certain coping patterns at the expense of trying others. This occurs at a time when a child’s personality and identity are still forming.
The good news: children are young! The benefit of early intervention - especially intervention that helps parents view behavior as a child’s way of communicating about a need (versus a bid for control or attention) - can shift the course of a life, for the better.
First, we partner together to uncover the root - or the need that your child is expressing - often through behavior, not words. This is a creative process that may include sessions with parents, children and/or family. Secondly, we’ll identify & shift your responses to the behavior while finding other ways to offer nurturance around your child’s need. This may include suggestions that are initially counter-intuitive and challenge your assumptions. Sometimes, co-parenting issues need to be considered. This is a collaborative, creative process that is unique for each family. Lastly, we work to develop consistency - which can involve communication with other caregivers and in-school support plans (if needed).
Taking a strength-based, non-judgmental approach that is culturally sensitive and considerate of your family’s values, I will help you support your child’s ability to cope with life’s stressors in ways that build emotional resilience.
Sometimes, just the added security that comes from engaging in one or two professional consults around a child’s issues can increase parents’ confidence and “steady the boat” at home. For this reason, the number of sessions and duration of coaching/treatment is individualized for each family’s needs.
Substance Abuse & Addictions
People engage in many behaviors to reduce stress and numb emotional pain or discomfort. Signs that one’s use of alcohol or drugs is becoming a problem include increased use over time to get the same effect (chasing the buzz or the high), expressed concern by or conflict with friends, family or colleagues regarding one’s use; trying to cut-down but not being able to; engaging in higher risk behaviors when using - or in order to use.
Dependence on drugs and alcohol - or other compulsive behaviors, such as work addiction, gaming/tech addiction, gambling use disorder - happens over time and varies greatly from person to person. Some people abuse substances or engage in compulsive behaviors to excess but are not addicted. For others, addiction is primary and must be addressed before other mental health issues. In both situations, the abuse of substances or behaviors is a symptom of another underlying problem.
Counseling with a therapist who is trained in addictions can be a safe place to explore your use of substances or other compulsive behaviors to determine whether or not you have - or are developing - a dependence or addiction.
When working with adults or adolescents, my approach is centered on motivational counseling to explore the reasons for or circumstances that lead to using and the feelings of ambivalence around wanting (or needing) to change.
I listen and customize my approach to the client, their needs and motivation level. I am trained in a variety of approaches, including abstinence, harm reduction and moderation.
Recovery Support & Counseling
After working in the fields of mental health and education for many years, one thing I know for sure is that almost all families in our country are affected by addiction - regardless of our zip code, education level, race, ethnicity or other “protective factors.” Whether it is the elderly aunt who was addicted to prescription pain medication, the son of a close friend who died of a heroin over-dose, the parent who drinks too often or too much, or the significant other who smokes pot every day - most of us have at least witnessed, if not experienced, the pain caused by addiction.
I offer treatment in the following specialty areas: motivating the reluctant client and counseling for parents, siblings and partners of loved ones in recovery. I provide individual therapy to clients in the early phases of recovery. Often, these clients seek treatment to supplement their work in self-help programs or because they are referred by various treatment programs.
Clinical Supervision
Since 2005, I have provided clinical supervision to mental health counselors and social workers in various settings, including agency, intensive in-home therapies and schools. I have supervised therapists who are provisionally licensed and working towards earning full licensure (LPC) in NJ. I hold a current credential as a clinical supervisor (ACS) in the state of New Jersey.
From 2015-2022, I helped lead a mental health collaborative between a community mental health agency and a public school district with the aim of integrating mental health clinicians - and best mental health practices - into elementary schools. For five years, I co-led weekly team supervision for provisionally licensed (LAC, LSW) counselors in partnership with the mental health agency’s clinical director - an experience that deeply enriched my understanding of developmental supervision. I received training in program development and counselor supervision through the National Center for School Mental Health (University of Maryland) and the University of North Carolina (Greensboro).
I am available to provide clinical supervisors on a per diem basis to provisionally licensed clinicians who are working with an agency, private practice or accredited graduate program if my background and approach are a good fit.
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
Case Conceptualization
Multi-Cultural Counseling
Identity Development
LGBTQ+ Population
Parenting/Co-Parenting
Grief/Loss/Transitions
Family Systems
Traumatic Loss/Crisis Interventions
Addiction & Co-Dependency
Behavioral/Process Addictions
Non-Suicidal Self Injury
Anxiety
ADHD/Executive Functioning
Learning Differences
School Plans to Support Learning Differences, Mental Health Challenges