– Services –
I utilize a variety of evidence-based practices to help clients overcome challenges and create positive changes in their lives. Through the use of cognitive-behavioral strategies, positive behavioral interventions, and family systems theory, I maintain a solution-focused approach with my clients. The perpetual goal is to uncover inherent skills and strengths while providing access to resources and new “tools” along the way, so that maximum independence and growth can be achieved.
-Psychotherapy–
Therapy may be implemented with individual, couples, family, children or adolescents. Clients typically attend therapy sessions once per week, especially in the beginning of treatment. Utilizing a solution-focused emphasis, we will create a positive and supportive environment that aims to harness and highlight the strengths already within you, as an individual/couple/family. Together, we will set goals at the outset of therapy, and identify benchmarks towards maximum resolution, growth, independence, and quality of life.
-Parent Training-
Parents and caretakers of our children are the ultimate experts, and the eternal unsung heroes…but whether your child just received a diagnosis, or you have 25 years of parenting experience, the journey of parenthood undoubtedly promises challenges from time to time. Perhaps your child is beginning a new developmental stage, or your family has experienced an unforeseen life stressor, or you’re struggling navigating the various therapies and services your child is receiving. I will help illuminate the remarkable strengths within you as a parent(s), break down and set realistic, attainable goals, connect you with resources, and skill-build with you so that you’re able to surmount and overcome the current hurdle, and amply prepare for those that may come down the road. Parent consultation services can be short-term or long-term in nature, and vary in terms of how often (and in what modality). Support can be conducted either in tandem with other services or as a stand-alone application.
-Applied Behavior Analysis–
The primary and most fundamental goal of all behavioral intervention programs is to increase adaptive behaviors and decrease maladaptive behaviors in a way that is as socially significant and meaningful for the family system as possible. Utilizing a highly individualized program specifically structured to meet each client’s unique needs, I am able to serve clients ranging in age through the entire lifespan. As each child and family present with a unique set of abilities, I will design an intricately tailored program to address specific strengths and weaknesses in the areas of language, communication, play, socialization, community safety, and daily living skills.
With 20 years of experience, I am particularly skilled at creating practical and applicable programs that identify and develop family’s inherent strengths, support systemic growth, and enrich lifestyles in the most naturalistic and opportune settings. Whether your goals are to help your child increase communication skills, behave more adaptively in the community, improve play and social skills, or to have dinner as a family, ABA therapy can 100% be effectively utilized.
In essence, ABA strategies will help to:
- Increase adaptive behaviors (e.g., communication, play/leisure skills, self-help skills, safety, following directions).
- Reduce problem behaviors (e.g., aggression, noncompliance, tantrums).
- Generalize behaviors across practical and relevant situations and environments
-School Consultations –
San Diego is home to some of the most progressive and innovative public, private, and charter schools in the nation—schools where collaboration and support are welcomed and encouraged. During the Covid Pandemic, our beloved teachers have been tasked with a nearly insurmountable duty of educating our community’s children from afar. Many students with developmental, behavioral, and emotional challenges elicit behaviors that impede their access to an effective education (both virtually and in-person), and I am able to provide numerous support services to the schools to help remediate these behaviors and stressors. School teachers and staff manage an extraordinary number of duties and responsibilities, so my goal is always to make the intervention plans as practical and functional as possible. While there is no “one size fits all” approach, we ALL inevitably have the same goal—for each and every student to achieve academic success. I’ve worked hand in hand with schools for nearly 20 years, together as a team, to create intervention plans, strategies and supports that are functional and practical for staff to implement and for families to reinforce and maintain at home.
School-based services may include:
- Functional Behavior Assessments
- As needed or ongoing Behavioral Consultation with students and/or staff
- 1:1 in-person or virtual academic/behavior/emotional support with students
- Behavior Assessments, such as the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills and the Assessment of Functional Living Skills
-Functional Behavior Assessments –
If a child has challenging behaviors that are interfering with his/her learning or social experience at home, school, or community-based setting, parents or school personnel may request a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) to more closely examine and resolve the behaviors of concern. Ultimately, an FBA is used to determine the following three questions:
- Why does the student have challenging behavior?
- What reinforces the challenging behavior?
- What positive interventions help decrease the challenging behavior and increase the desired behavior?
An FBA contains several steps including:
- An interview with teachers/aides, caretakers, or parents
- Record reviews
- Directly observing the child
- Identifying and defining behaviors
- Collecting data (frequency, duration, and ABC)
- Analyzing data
- Creating a hypothesis to the function of the maladaptive behaviors
- Implementing an individualized behavior intervention plan (BIP)
A common misconception is that a Functional Behavior Assessment is an intervention, when it is actually a process or tool for understanding the function (purpose) of behavior. The results of an FBA will assist in creating an effective behavioral intervention plan (BIP).
-Social Skills Training –
Social Skills Training provides opportunities for social learning across the lifespan by fostering interpersonal skills, social-emotional awareness, and social communication skills. My clients learn strategies that are crucial in friendships and interpersonal relationships, such as perspective-taking skills, emotional awareness, self-regulation, problem-solving skills, and verbal and non-verbal communication.
Some key concepts may include: