**Important Update**
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All of our psychologists offer telepsychology (including phone or video sessions) for new and returning clients. Please call us and leave a message. One of us will return your call as soon as possible to discuss the best option for you and/or your family.
Who looks outside; dreams.
Who looks inside; awakes.
-Carl Jung
Individual Psychotherapy for Children, Adolescents, and Adults
There are times when turning to a professional can provide the necessary help to navigate some tough times. Even little children can have some extremely large difficulties. Temper tantrums, biting, noncompliance, and other disruptive behaviors as well as difficulties with sleeping and potty training are common parental complaints. We can help. Many school age and pre-teens have behavioral and emotional concerns such as depression and anxiety. Transitioning from childhood to adulthood while searching for independence and autonomy can make adolescence challenging. Teens often face concerns regarding identity, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, body image concerns and interpersonal difficulties. Adults can also have their own concerns. We can help with these and other behavioral or emotional issues.
Marital/Couples Therapy
With more than half of marriages in America ending in divorce, it is no secret that couples face a myriad of stressors, including financial, work-related, parenting, and other unexpected stressors. In addition, most parents agree that dealing with a difficult child can put cracks in even the most solid relationship. Our directive, skills-based couples therapy can assist in strengthening your parenting team, improving communication and problem-solving skills, and increasing intimacy.
Blended families and divorcing couples
Many veterans of divorce with children know that splitting up doesn’t mean you can live life without ever being involved with your former spouse again. In fact, a child cements your involvement with each other for the rest of your lives! However, the good news is that involvement doesn’t need to be filled with drama and conflict.
Divorce and remarriage can be times of both great renewal and great turmoil. People need real-life, practical ways to make the transition as smooth as possible. Even families who have been divorced for a long time need help managing conflict and making sure everyone knows their roles. Children often need help coping with parent conflict or dealing with an uninvolved or sporadically involved parent.
Believe it or not, most marriages can be dissolved without hurt and conflict by following some time-proven strategies that pace the timing of getting divorced and remarried with the needs of your children. We can help you tell your children about your decision to separate and divorce in a way that they can still have a sense of security at home amidst the change. If fact, there are very effective ways to help your children become part of the process as much as possible so that they don’t feel helpless or develop behavior problems.
With divorce being so prevalent, why reinvent the wheel to manage it or struggle without guidance when so many families have found solutions through trial and error! We can share with you many ways to keep a strong co-parenting team while making academic and financial decisions for your children. We can also show you how to unite as a team and work as two separate households to manage children and adolescents. Step-parents need help navigating new terrain with sometimes unwilling children. Step-parents can benefit from what veteran step-parents know about being a friend first while parenting behind the scenes and becoming a parent later if necessary.
Family Therapy
Family: A source of strength and change…
Here at the Hockessin Center for Change we know that family is the most important aspect of our busy, complicated lives. Although we hold our children, spouses, parents and siblings closest to our hearts, ironically, family can be the place where our most difficult struggles in life occur. No one can frustrate us more than our family members, yet our families can also be the most powerful source of change.
Real-life, practical ways to bring about change…
Family therapy can be the most productive, rewarding and efficient way to make meaningful change in your lives and get things back on track. Unfortunately, children don’t come with manuals, and there are challenges in parenting children at each stage of development. From toddlers’ temper tantrums to lack of communication with teenagers, parents can often use assistance in negotiating these difficult stages. Family therapists at the Hockessin Center for Change have worked with numerous families over the years and can share with you dozens of concrete strategies that have worked with other clients. For example, we have found a step-by-step approach that can be customized to
Psychodiagnostic and Psychoeducational Evaluations
"Does my child have a learning disability?"
"Even though my child studies hard, he still can't make the grade in school!"
"The teachers are always complaining that my child can't seem to focus!"
"I don't know what is the matter with her - one week she does well, the next week its like she never learned it!"
"My son is having problems with reading!"
"My child never had any difficulties with school before, now....she just isn't doing well.."
These and other concerns are common. We are able to provide comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations to understand the nature and root of your child's learning and/or behavioral difficulties. We have considerable experience diagnosing and providing recommendations for many child/adolescent concerns including (but not limited to):
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Learning Disorders
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Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
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Autistic Spectrum Disorders
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Behavioral Disorders
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Emotional Disorders
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Problems with Executive Functioning
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Intellectual (Cognitive) Ability
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Memory Functioning
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Language Functioning
Organizational/Study Skills Intervention
Executive functions are a collection of skills that are responsible for guiding, directing and managing cognitive, emotional and behavioral functioning. They include planning and organization, creating relevant task goals, developing flexible problem solving strategies, working memory, time management, initiating new behaviors, controlling impulses, and self monitoring/evaluating behavior. These set of skills are fundamental to academic success as they are responsible for helping a student envision a goal, plan a series of steps to achieve it, evaluate resources that will be required along the way, take the initiative in reaching the goal, inhibit competing desires and impulses, and evaluate how well he/she is progressing. Since these skills develop gradually throughout childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, many students show areas of weakness and difficulty in executive functioning in different ways and at different points in their
development.
The OSS intervention program is organized in 8-12 weekly sessions targeting a student’s particular areas of difficulty. General themes include:
• Time management
• Goal setting
• Prioritizing and organizing homework assignments
• Note taking skills
• Structuring writing assignments
• Study strategies
• Memorization strategies
• Test preparation
• Emotion Regulation
• Establishing home routines
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