Child Therapists in Oakland, CA

Are you concerned about your child ’s behavior? Are you struggling to understand what is happening for your child ? Are you finding parenting overwhelming? I work with children and parents to help them make meaning of life’s challenges and work with children and parents, both individually and together. I bring more than twenty years of experience providing therapy, consultation, and assessments with children and their families to my clinical practice. I have experience working with children and families around many issues including, loss, attachment, adoption, anxiety, depression, atypical development, learning differences and trauma.

Do you or your child have difficulty maintaining healthy relationships? Are you or your child anxious or depressed? Is your family having difficulty connecting? I am here to support you, your child , or your family in expressing your feelings, acknowledging your lived experiences, and navigating relationships.

Selecting the right therapist is essential- here is some information about me and my practice to help inform your decision. I am a licensed clinical psychologist with over 15 years of experience working with children and adolescents. I work collaboratively with parents in creation of goals and throughout the course of treatment. Through play I help children to; express difficult feelings, resolve internal conflicts, learn adaptive ways to cope, and to develop resiliency. I offer free phone consultations in order to help determine if I am the right therapist for your child .

You are searching for your resilience! I will help you regain your joy and confidence in parenting. As you continue to navigate the Pandemic, your personal and work related stressors, there is a feeling of helplessness. Your child retreats into depression or acts out in anger or fits of anxiety. Their social & emotional suffering impacts your entire family and while it's your deepest wish to comfort them you feel lost. If you are partnered, there is tension in your parenting styles. You are committed to learning strategies that support your child and are sustainable. You want them to feel seen and understood. Help is here!

I offer humor, warmth and unconditional acceptance of whatever you bring into session. I've worked with many different issues across many different age groups including: depression, anxiety, existential and relationship issues and trauma. Many clients come in wanting to unpack their past- others need to focus on the present. I can meet you wherever you are and help you develop a healthy relationship to yourself and others. Children 's psychological needs often represent themselves a little differently, but ultimately require the same safe space to explore, unpack and process.

Are you feeling stressed? Feeling dissatisfied with your life or work? Or are you a parent who is worried about your child ? Maybe there’s been a change, they’re not doing as well as you know they could. Perhaps you’ve observed a worrisome pattern of increased stress and anxiety in them...but they won’t talk to you like they used to. I have extensive experience working with adults, children , teens and families experiencing anxiety, depression, and stress. Additionally, I have experience in working with people diagnosed with ADHD, as they often need support for feelings of inadequacy, regret, anxiety, and depression.

Through counseling, I support families to identify patterns in behavior and communication. Our work together will be collaborative and strengths-based. It will encourage shifts in the family to promote healthy expression of emotions and communication to improve relationships. I use a directive style of communication and an active and integrative approach with children and adolescents. I encourage parents, caregivers and other family members to be involved in the therapeutic process.

Are you worried about your child ? Are they having trouble in school? Not making friends? Has being a parent become really stressful? Parenting is always a challenge and can be even harder if your child is having emotional or behavioral difficulties. My goals are to help children reach their maximum potential emotionally, socially, and behaviorally and help parents be empowered and have more effective parenting skills. I specialize in working with children who have emotional, behavioral and academic difficulties including ADHD, anxiety, depression, poor frustration tolerance, loss of a loved one, trauma, family conflict, and interpersonal relationship difficulties.

Therapy should not and cannot be "one size fits all." It should be rooted in a consistent, deep effort to understand who you are and what you need, in relation to the resources you have near you. Therapy should also be practical and offer some fairly immediate results, even though bigger change takes time. It's ultimately about collaboration, and the formation of a helpful relationship. Although I have 25 years of clinical experience to bring to our work, it is more important that you feel we have a good match as we enter this work together. I trust that after we talk, you'll know whether it seems like the right match.

Are you experiencing low self esteem? Dealing with grief or loss? Is your child or teen struggling? Feeling anxious or depressed? Psychotherapy can help you form a better relationship with yourself, your family, and others. I work collaboratively with clients, establishing a warm, empathic environment that feels safe and free of judgement. I provide individual psychotherapy and family therapy across the lifespan, and have training and experience working with children , adolescents, parents, and individual adult clients. I offer telehealth (anywhere in CA) as well as outdoor therapy (in the East Bay).

Seeking help is often the first step in making a change for the better. My goal as a therapist is to support you in your steps towards wellness. I work with children , adolescents, adults and families with a wide range of emotional concerns. I support children and adolescents struggling with emotional or behavioral issues, adults managing life stress, individuals facing life transitions, or families struggling with communication difficulties. As a therapist I will work collaboratively with you to build upon your strengths to create change and will tailor my treatments to meet your unique needs.

I am a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in child and adolescent development with over 15 years of experience working with children , teens and families. I have extensive training in child development and have been employed in outpatient and inpatient facilities, have served as the lead mental health clinician in multidisciplinary teams working with children struggling with feeding issues, and have run social skills groups in addition to providing individual and family treatment. I have a substantial amount of experience with teens suffering from anxiety and depression.

People seek therapy when they feel unhappy, anxious, stuck in patterns and relationships that don't serve them or acting in ways that are self-destructive. Therapy can address and change outmoded ways of being. The therapeutic relationship is key to this work: It offers the possibility of exploring and understanding more effective and satisfying ways of relating to ourselves and others. I work with children , adolescents and adults in individual therapy, using a collaborative approach that centers on empathy, understanding, curiosity and exploration.