Assessment & Treatment For Children & Adults
New Orleans, LAThrive, From The Inside Out
How I Can Help
I understand how frustrating, confusing, and discouraging life can seem when you don’t have answers, understanding, or a clear plan to feel and live better. No one should have to settle for less than their best health, genuine happiness and contentment, and true success in life. I can help you get there!
My mission is to help you, or your loved one, to become as healthy, joyful, and successful as possible.
Through comprehensive, individualized assessment (testing and diagnosis), we can get a clear idea of many areas of psychological functioning – cognitive, academic/learning, emotion/mood, social, behavioral, and personality.
Through consultation and psychotherapy (treatment) services with adults, I can help you secure better ways of thinking, learning, relating, and making choices.
The goal is for you to get relief from symptoms, overcome difficult circumstances, achieve your goals, transform your life, and gain peace and happiness.
Services Offered
Child & Adolescent Assessment
If your son or daughter is having difficulty, you want answers as soon as possible so you know how best to help them. Even though problems are a part of life, you don’t want your child to struggle any more than needed. Let me help give you the clarity you are seeking and a plan to help your child thrive right where they are and to ultimately reach their potential.
Adult Assessment
If you have been struggling with your attention, thoughts, mood, or daily activities like sleep, energy, or organization, you are likely discouraged, worried, and/or frustrated about how to feel and function better. Psychological assessment can give you understanding, explanation, and strategies to get you unstuck and moving forward.
Adult Therapy
If you have been grappling with your thinking, mood, or daily activities, you may be feeling overwhelmed or exhausted. Therapy can help you to identify unhealthy thought patterns and habits, and to develop more positive, adaptive ways of thinking and being so you can reduce symptoms, resolve problems, feel healthy inside and out, increase productivity, and enhance your overall sense of well-being and quality of life.
Adult Consultation
If you are dealing with a specific issue, or you have goals for your life, you may not know what to do next or you might be confused with where to start. Consultation can provide you with needed guidance and direction through brief, solution-focused visits so you can develop a plan, learn strategies, get unstuck, and move forward in your life.
Christian Therapy
If you have been struggling in your life circumstances, uncertain in your walk with God, have questions about or want to grow your faith, therapy can help you through the process. As a believer, I know that times of challenge, uncertainty, loss, and difficulty in life are opportunities to strengthen your faith and relationship with God, to deepen your peace and joy, to cultivate perseverance and resilience, and to grow in the knowledge of who you are and were created to be as a child of God.
Areas of Expertise
Assessment
- ADD/ADHD
- Learning/Academic Problems (e.g., dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia)
- Anxiety & Depression
- Behavioral Concerns (e.g., defiance, meltdowns)
- Developmental Delay (e.g., speech, motor skills, autism spectrum)
- Giftedness & School Admission
- Pre-surgical Weight Loss Evaluation
- Spinal Cord Stimulator & Spine Surgery Assessment
- Pain Psychological Evaluation
- Law Enforcement/Public Safety Applicant Assessment
Treatment
- Anxiety, Worry, Panic
- Women’s Issues (e.g., aging, fertility, family roles)
- Self-Esteem/Self-Confidence
- Stress Management
- Life Transitions & Balance (e.g., family, career)
- ADHD & Executive Functioning Issues (e.g., time management, productivity)
- Depression, Unhappiness, Discouragement
- Health & Wellness (e.g., exercise, eating, sleep, physical health management)
- Adjustment Issues (e.g., change in health, relationships, work)
- Grief & Loss (death, divorce)
Christian Therapy
- Depression & Anxiety
- Faith-Related Questions & Concerns
- Self-Esteem & Identity In Christ
- Deepening Your Relationship With God
- Scriptural/Biblical Guidance On Specific Topics
- Seeking God’s Will In Your Life
- Forgiveness & Healing From Past Hurt
- Enhancing Devotional Life (Prayer, Meditation)
- Facing Illness & Grief
- Anger With God
What Is Assessment?
Psychological assessment involves the evaluation of many areas of human cognition, learning, emotion, and behavior, including attention, executive functions, mood language/communication, social/behavioral functioning, academic skills, and intellectual functioning. In this process, your areas of strengths and weaknesses are able to be determined through scientifically-based and data-driven approaches to ultimately guide the development of a plan to help you remove obstacles, increase skills, and meet your goals in all areas of your life.
What Is Therapy?
Therapy is a collaborative experience designed to better understand barriers or difficulties in your life and ways to overcome them, feel better, and reach your potential. When you come in, the first one or two visits involves an initial interview including a thorough review of your concerns, personal background, and reasons/goals for therapy, often accompanied by brief assessment measures to provide additional clarity. Together, we will develop a plan to map out the next best steps for you, including referrals for other services such as a medical evaluation or more specialized treatment.
Steps To Better Health
It often takes people a while before they make the decision to come and seek help from a psychologist. You may try everything you know to do first, maybe putting off the visit because you don’t know how it would really help or you hoped things would get better on their own, because you’re afraid it might be a waste of time, or because of negative beliefs about what it means to seek that assistance. Whatever the reason, I want you to have as much information about the process as possible so you feel comfortable when you make the decision to come in.
1. Schedule an appointment
After you make the decision to come in, you can call our office or request to schedule an initial appointment online. At that time, we will ask for your information (e.g., name and contact info, reason for the visit, insurance information). Then, we will determine if we can help you in our office, in which case we will schedule a visit, or if your needs may better be served by another professional, in which case we may point you in a better direction – we want you to find the best match!
2. Complete intake paperwork
We will ask you to complete our intake paperwork before coming for your initial appointment. This can be completed at your convenience online or printed and faxed to us, to make sure we have the most accurate information and save time when you come for the visit. Don’t hesitate to call or email us if you have any questions about the paperwork. Even though it may seem long, it allows us to be as thorough and thoughtful as possible in order to best serve you!
3. Come in for initial visit
The initial visit will include the clinical interview (which usually lasts about an hour) and sometimes includes testing, depending on your needs and insurance. We understand you have a busy schedule and want to accommodate you as much as we possibly can. Please make sure you come 15 minutes early for your appointment so that we can get you checked in and ready to go!
4. Finish testing, if needed
If you didn’t complete your testing after our initial visit together, you will do so on a second day, usually within 1-2 weeks if your schedule allows. If you don’t need testing, as is the case with some consultation or therapy services, you will skip this step.
5. Come in for follow-up/feedback sessions
Most assessment services will end in a feedback session, where we review the results of testing, diagnostic impressions, and recommendations for treatment (the “plan of attack” as I like to call it!). By the end of that week, you will have a copy of your evaluation report, and we are happy to send a copy elsewhere as requested (e.g., school, physician). With adults, there is the possibility of following the assessment process with therapy, if desired. In the case of pre-surgical evaluations, the feedback session is optional and the report goes straight to the referring physician, usually within 5-7 business days of test completion. With therapy services, the follow-up session(s) are designed to work on collaboratively identified goals, with practice of strategies between visits.
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Contact Us
Need more info? Feel free to ask. For emergencies, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.