I provide therapy services for children as young as 4 years old, adolescents, young adults, and parents of any age. Most of the clients I work with are children and teenagers, but this expertise often benefits young adults as well because it’s helpful to unpack attachment patterns and family of origin experiences.

A therapist’s role is to listen to what’s going on to better understand the problem, and then provide guide rails for the individual to make changes, grow, heal, and improve the circumstances for which they originally sought treatment. So a children’s therapist works in the same capacity, but children don’t sit down and talk about what’s going on like adults do.

Children’s therapy is tailored to the developmental needs of the child. Specifically, the most effective children’s therapy is play therapy because it allows the child to process the world in their natural language, which is play, according to research.

Children’s therapists help the child process confusing or scary experiences, behavioral issues, academic struggles, social interactions, school transitions, family changes, divorce, death, birth of a new sibling and other similar issues. Sometimes when a child is struggling with medical issues or problems, it’s helpful to have the child in therapy for those reasons as well.

The best way to summarize the role of a children’s therapist is to act as guide rails for the child’s emotional health, no matter what they’re navigating in the midst of their childhood.

What many teenagers need most is a safe space to process their world and express themselves without the fear of shame or judgement. In therapy sessions, they have the opportunity to find compassion, support, and growth. To facilitate this growth, I center empathetic relationships with each client. Whether your teen is a Middle Schooler or a High Schooler, this relationship is the foundation of any therapeutic work to be accomplished.

Some teenagers benefit from structured activities in therapy and others are ready to sit on the couch and share it all. Either way, I draw heavily from client-centered approaches as well as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. In other words, I center treatment around your teenager learning more about themselves, their emotional needs, and developing a healthy sense of autonomy in their life.

Wherever your teen is coming from, or whatever challenges they may have faced, there is hope for growth.

Parents are sometimes told that a psychological evaluation would be helpful or necessary.

Before that decision is made, I often advocate that the parent look at the end goal and the outcome that they’re seeking before they decide whether the evaluation is relevant to their child’s situation.

If it’s just to form a diagnosis or rule out a concern, there are often other ways to achieve those outcomes that don’t require the psychological evaluation.

In the case of wanting to rule out issues, or end up with a relevant diagnosis, typically, I advocate that behavioral and mental health therapy should be the first route in that case. At the end of therapy, an evaluation may no longer be warranted, as the original behaviors may be reduced or no longer present.

Psychological evaluations can be helpful in many cases. However, a psychological evaluation is not always necessary, and there are other options that usually end up achieving positive results.

My office is located at 310 Sul Ross St., which is down Alabama off Montrose. We’re right in the heart of Houston, with easy access from I-10, 45, and 59.

I am out of network with insurance providers. This means that you pay directly, and then I can offer you a "superbill" to send to insurance for reimbursement.