Today’s children and adolescents are met with more challenges and pressures than ever before. Whether they're dealing with stressors related to their school, their peers, social media, family life, or their mental health, sometimes they need a little extra help. I can provide your child emotional support and guidance informed by psychoeducation, general wellness, mental health practices and a supportive relationship. My goal is to help your child meet their developmental challenges in a healthy and positive way.
I have experience using a variety of accepted and evidence-based practices including but not limited to CBT, DBT, play therapy, psychodynamic, trauma-informed and gestalt psychotherapy models to help children and adolescents struggling with:
- Stress
- Social & Academic Challenges
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Anger
- Trauma
- Bipolar Disorder
- Family Transitions
- Separation & Divorce
- Ailing Parent
- Grief & Loss
Sometimes a child or teenager just needs somebody outside of their family, school and peer group to talk about how they're really doing. I can be that person for your child.
My work with your child begins with a 90 minute meeting with you, the parent(s), for a thorough assessment to understand your concerns and relationship with your child. Subsequent sessions with your child are 50 minutes in duration. Intermittent parenting and family sessions are scheduled as needed and appropriate for overall treatment goals and to keep parents up to date and included.
I brought my 15 year old son for a consultation with Josh and immediately he felt a connection. As a therapist myself, I knew connection is crucial. I recognized that I could not be objective and felt fearful because adolescence is such a challenging time. I was concerned about him because he's very a bright student and a talented musician who was underachieving in school and lacked confidence. He's a typical ADD kid, but reported feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and possibly depressed. Josh normalized a lot of adolescent angst while offering him coping strategies.
Josh welcomed parental support in addition to individual sessions. He explored our family dynamic patterns without judgment or blame, but clearly needed to be interrupted. We all benefited from the therapeutic process as result of understanding each others’ perspectives better. Josh was respectfully direct and very professional. My son is doing much better because Josh provided him a safe place outside his own home where he learned how to tolerate vulnerability. Knowing when to ask for help is a sign of strength, and courage not weakness and he realizes therapy is not for "crazy" people. I believe my son would definitely return if he felt himself sinking. My son said that he always felt that Josh had his best interest at heart and that he understood him.