Psychiatric Treatment for Children & Adolescents
Licensed in NY, NJ, CT, and PA
Every new visit begins with a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation, typically lasting 90 minutes. Sessions can include time together as a family, one-on-one with your child, or time with parents alone, ensuring everyone has space to share openly, including sensitive concerns.
I also gather insight from trusted collateral sources (with your permission), such as teachers, tutors, therapists, and caregivers. This allows for a more complete understanding of your child’s needs.
In addition to mental health symptoms, I consider medical history, family background, lifestyle habits, and environmental factors. Once the evaluation is complete, I develop personalized treatment recommendations designed to create meaningful, lasting improvements for your child and family.
What to Expect After Your Child’s Evaluation
Following your child’s evaluation, I will provide personalized recommendations that may include therapy, medication, school-based support, or referrals to other specialists when appropriate.
This may include:
School consultation, IEP development, or 504 planning
Neuropsychological testing referrals
Medical or specialty referrals
Changes to home routines or parenting strategies
Together, we will:
Develop a clear, realistic plan tailored to your child and your family
Outline specific next steps so you know exactly what to do moving forward
Decide how and when to implement changes in a way that feels manageable
This is a collaborative process, with ongoing guidance so you’re not left trying to figure things out on your own.
What Changes When You Get the Right Support
Stronger Relationships
We’ll work on improving communication, reducing conflict at home, and helping your child navigate social challenges like peer pressure, bullying, or feeling isolated.
Understanding What’s Going On
Through assessment and treatment, we’ll identify patterns and contributing factors behind your child’s struggles and create a clear, actionable plan for moving forward.
Better Day-to-Day Functioning
Whether it’s school performance, behavior at home, or managing daily responsibilities, we’ll develop strategies that help your child function more consistently and feel more in control.
How To Know When Your Child Needs Help
It can be difficult to know when to seek professional support. If you’re experiencing ongoing challenges, it may be time to reach out.
You may benefit from an evaluation if:
Your home feels tense or lacks peace
Your child is struggling academically or behaviorally
Family conflicts have escalated
You feel like you’ve tried everything without success
Through an assessment, we can identify what's preventing progress or harmony, formulate a treatment plan to achieve your goals, and begin the steps necessary to bring a higher level of functioning, warmth, humor, and love to your home.
Some real-life benefits to treatment for your child
With consistent support and a clear plan, we can:
Improve classroom behavior and school performance
Reduce conflict at home and/or at school
Create a home of emotional safety for parent and child alike, so that everyone feels free to communicate
Help your child meet academic expectations
Build a tool kit of behaviors and interventions that will help keep things on track
Support long-term goals such as advancing grades or preparing for college
How to Get Started
Getting the right support early can make a meaningful difference for your child and for your family as a whole. Book your free consultation call today.
1
Schedule your consultation
We'll take the time together to talk about your concerns, goals, and any questions you may have about your child’s evaluation and treatment process.
2
Complete your child’s evaluation
During their initial evaluation, we'll talk not only about the present, but about the history that has led your child here. I will then offer my recommendations for treatment and we can begin our work together.
3
Begin treatment and ongoing support
Consistent follow-ups. Whether you're a therapy patient, seeing me for medication management, or both, we will see each other on a regular basis to ensure that we're achieving and maintaining progress.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. My assessments are semi-structured interviews in which I ask specific questions about your child's history and presenting behavior in order to ascertain a clear diagnosis and the appropriate interventions to address it.
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Yes, my assessments and recommendations can be used to inform school-based interventions and help you to get appropriate accommodations for your child in school (and elsewhere).
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All medications come with a risk-to-benefit ratio that we will weigh together. Most of the interventions I recommend, however, are safe. My recommendations are backed by a strong evidence base consisting of the most up-to-date literature and practices recommended by the AACAP, APA, AMA, and other respected professional bodies.
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Whenever possible, I like to confer with as many people in your child's life as possible to better understand them and their needs. I also liaise with a wonderful medical doctor on cases where I feel additional guidance is beneficial or can enhance outcomes.
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After graduating Cum Laude from Connecticut College with a BA in Psychology, I began my career in inpatient psychiatry as a nurse’s aide at NewYork-Presbyterian Payne Whitney Westchester, where I worked for three years. I then attended Columbia University School of Nursing, earning my BSN while continuing to work in inpatient psychiatry for five years.
During this time, I developed a strong foundation in psychiatric medications, emergency psychiatry, and crisis management. I later earned my MSN and began working as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner in an outpatient community mental health clinic in Harlem, serving underserved populations.
This experience allowed me to work with a wide range of diagnoses and clinical presentations before transitioning into private practice part-time in 2020 and full-time in 2022.
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I've always known that I wanted to work with children. From the young age of 16, I showed a great aptitude for working with kids, spending six summers as a camp counselor for kids ages 3-8. Today, I believe in bringing a human approach to my sessions, and working with me will never feel stiff or rote; there's always room for humor and levity, even when things feel darkest.
I also pride myself on being accessible to you between sessions. You'll never feel alone or hung out to dry when you work with me. Through the use of a HIPAA-compliant, secure communication app (Spruce), I'm never far away. You are always welcome to message me with questions, refill requests, and scheduling changes, or to simply check in about how things are going. I'm there for you when others would simply send you to their answering service.