THERAPY FOR CHILDREN, TEENS & YOUNG ADULTS
When Your Child Is Struggling, It Affects More Than Your Child.
Anxiety, ADHD, autism, trauma, emotional dysregulation, and behavioral challenges can affect school, friendships, family relationships, routines, confidence, and everyday life.
Therapy provides a space to better understand what is contributing to those difficulties while helping children and adolescents develop skills that support emotional regulation, coping, communication, problem-solving, and relationships.
Your child's mental health is just as important as their physical health
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My Approach
Therapy That Meets Children Where They Are
Understand
We begin by understanding the child, not simply the behavior or diagnosis, including strengths, challenges, relationships, environment, development, and the situations in which difficulties occur.
Connect
A strong therapeutic relationship creates the safety children need to communicate, experiment with new skills, make mistakes, and work through difficult experiences.
Build Skills
Treatment may include emotional regulation, coping, communication, problem-solving, distress tolerance, flexibility, executive functioning, and other skills based on individual needs.
Practice & Generalize
The goal is for skills to become useful beyond the therapy room, at home, at school, in relationships, and during the moments when they are actually needed.
Developmentally Appropriate. Evidence-Based. Individualized.
Children are not small adults, and therapy with children should not simply be adult talk therapy adapted for a younger person.
Depending on a client’s age, needs, and treatment goals, sessions may incorporate different therapeutic approaches and activities.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Helping clients recognize connections between thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and experiences while developing more effective ways of responding.
DBT-Informed Treatment
Building practical skills for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, communication, and navigating intense emotions.
Therapeutic Play & Regulation
Using play, creative activities, sensory strategies, movement, and developmentally appropriate experiences to help children communicate, process, practice, and regulate.
Who I Work With
I work primarily with children, adolescents, and young adults experiencing emotional, behavioral, developmental, and mental health challenges.
Therapy may address:
- ADHD and executive functioning difficulties
- Autism and neurodivergence
- Anxiety and avoidance
- Developmental trauma
- Emotional dysregulation
- Behavioral concerns
- Difficulty identifying or expressing emotions
- School-related stress
- Parent-child conflict
- Life transitions and family changes
Treatment is individualized based on the client’s developmental level, strengths, needs, environment, and treatment goals.
FAQ
I am a preferred provider (In-Network) for the following insurance companies:
- Aetna
- Anthem
- Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Health New England
- Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare
- Optum
- United Healthcare
Specializing in treating children and families, I bring expertise in addressing Autism, ADHD, Anxiety, and Trauma. With a focus on providing compassionate and effective care, I offer personalized treatment plans tailored to each individual's unique needs. Through evidence-based interventions and a trauma-informed approach, I empower my clients to overcome challenges, build resilience, and thrive in their daily lives.
Along with my state license as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, I also hold professional certification in the treatment anxiety, ADHD, and autism treatment, I bring a wealth of experience and expertise to my practice. With a strong foundation in trauma-informed care and cultural competency in counseling, I utilize evidence-based interventions such as: dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and play therapy to address the unique needs of children and teens.
My extensive background includes working with individuals diagnosed with anxiety, ADHD, autism, behavioral challenges, and trauma. Through compassionate and tailored interventions, I empower my clients to overcome obstacles, develop coping strategies, and achieve meaningful growth and healing. Whether it's managing anxiety symptoms, improving focus and attention, or navigating social interactions, I am committed to providing comprehensive and effective support tailored to each individual's unique needs.
Dialectical behavioral therapy is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy that focuses not just on what you are thinking but how you are feeling. Its main goals are to teach people how to live in the moment, develop healthy ways to cope with stress, regulate their emotions, and improve their relationships with other. DBT is a combination of processing issues around acceptance of self and the need for change along with learning specific skills to improve your life.
Play Therapy is the use of toys and other play materials to create changes in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Due to a child’s brain development and the specific way children learn they are not able to engage in traditional “talk therapy” to create improvements in their struggles like adults are. Play is their “language” and the specific ways they use the toys are their “words”. Children might use the sand tray, dolls, dramatic play costumes, puppets, or numerous other toys to help them make sense of their areas of difficulty and create insight on how to move forward.
Renee is an Associate Clinician with Family Care Counseling Associates in Wilbraham, MA. Call 413-596-6922 to schedule an appointment today!