How would you describe your practice?
Our psychological practice is located in Palm Beach County, FL, and provides evidence-based treatments for a variety of mental health conditions. After meeting with you for an initial assessment, we will develop a personalized treatment plan to help you accomplish your therapeutic goals. Our staff includes licensed clinical psychologists who hold doctoral degrees and have specialized experience and training in mental health care. In addition to providing therapy, our therapists are also involved in assessment and testing, clinical research, and writing.
Most adults, teens, and children who seek therapy are experiencing an unwanted emotion. Depressed individuals often feel stuck and hopeless, whereas anxious individuals may feel panicked and scared. Unfortunately, humans lack the capacity to change their feelings directly through sheer act of will. If you’ve ever felt depressed or anxious, you understand how it’s impossible to just push away and neutralize unwanted emotions. Fortunately, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) provides the tools we need to modify our thoughts and behaviors, which then can positively affect the way we feel. We’ll help you understand what creates and maintains the emotions you are experiencing while assisting you in developing the confidence and willingness necessary for change.
We believe that lasting recovery is not just based on words but also on actions. For you to benefit the most from therapy, the skills you learn in our office must be applied in your daily life. This real-world based approach is necessary in order to make meaningful progress and improve your quality of life.
We pride ourselves on being able to work around your busy schedule. Our appointment times are flexible and include night and weekend appointments. When appropriate, current clients may also elect to have phone-based appointments or schedule “remote visits” that utilize encrypted video-conferencing technology.
What communities do you serve?
We work with individuals throughout Palm Beach County and beyond. Given our close proximity to Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Juno, and West Palm Beach, we see many individuals from those communities. However, our reach also includes southern Palm Beach County (Boynton Beach, Boca Raton, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Delray Beach), as well as Broward (Fort Lauderdale) and Miami-Dade counties (Miami). We also recognize that in many cases, in order to be maximally effective, interventions need to target real-world situations. As such, we offer therapy options that transcend typical office visits, and include appointments conducted in the home, school, or office.
Many of our treatments are also based on challenging your symptoms in real-world environments. For example, if you are trying to overcome an anxiety disorder, there’s a place for talking, but there’s a larger place for action. When recovering from an anxiety disorder, it is critical to not only understand your fear but also to confront it directly. Our approach would involve teaching you the skills necessary for us to go out together in the real world and challenge your fear in a systematic way (going from easier “exposure” exercises to more challenging ones). This approach is readily applicable to nearly all anxiety disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic, social anxiety, fear of driving, fear of flying, school phobia, blood/death/injury/needle phobia, compulsive hoarding, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and separation anxiety. Exposures that target these conditions might take place in restaurants, malls, schools, hospitals, airports, or cars.
What populations do you treat? Do you treat both adults and children?
We treat individuals at all developmental levels, including kids, teens, adults, and the elderly, and adapt our interventions accordingly. Mental health conditions can affect nearly anyone, and we believe in the value of early treatment. Because many conditions begin early in life (anxiety, OCD), early interventions can help prevent or reduce the severity of later problems.
What conditions to you treat? What are your specialty areas?
We also provide specialized services for treating anxiety and mood disorders, including depression, panic attacks, panic disorder, hoarding, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), phobias, social anxiety, health anxiety, trichotillomania, tics, fear of driving, fear of flying, and Tourette’s Syndrome, among others. Depending on the nature and severity of your systems, we may recommend either traditional or intensive treatment.
In addition to these services, we provide couples therapy and help individuals learn to better cope with stress and lifestyle changes. We also use behavioral medicine techniques to help individuals successfully implement health behavior changes.
Do you prescribe medication?
No. We specialize in psychological and behavioral interventions and do not have an on-staff psychiatrist. However, because many individuals might benefit from a combination of therapy and medication, we work closely with many local prescribers (e.g., psychiatrists, primary care physicians, and neurologists) to coordinate care. We are happy to work with your current prescriber (if you have one), or we can provide you with a referral to a prescriber who has experience in treating your condition.
What types of treatments to do you provide? Are your treatments research-based?
We provide therapy in individual, couples, and group formats, and we believe strongly in the value of relying on the latest science and clinical research when making treatment decisions. As such, we use only “evidence-based” treatments in our clinic. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is one example of an evidence-based treatment that has been shown to be effective in treating a variety of mental health conditions including anxiety and mood disorders. Other evidence-based treatments we use include motivational interviewing (MI) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). At times, we also use techniques derived from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).
Many of the groups and/or specialty practice areas we offer (e.g., intensive anxiety treatment) are unique to our practice and are not readily available elsewhere in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, Delray Beach, Pompano Beach, Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie, Greenacres, or Boca Raton.
