Individual Psychotherapy

When working with children, our clinicians believe in partnering with parents to create individualized treatment tailored to the nature of the problem, the child’s age, and the child’s developmental level. Especially for young children, parents play a critical role in the therapeutic process, and our therapists provide parents insight and education to help them optimally support their child’s development.  For younger children, therapy often focuses on behavior change, helping children develop new and appropriate ways of coping. Our goal is to introduce and practice new, socially constructive ways for children to express their needs, communicate effectively, and learn social skills and adaptive behaviors to manage stress, anxiety and frustration.

Therapy for young children is often done in the context of play – a form of communication for children that enables them to communicate about their world and express the difficulties they may be experiencing. Through play therapy, we provide a forum for children to work out problems and build skills like self-regulation, impulse control, social intelligence and judgment. Play therapy also provides a form of healing, allowing children to feel understood and gain coping skills to move forward.

Our clinicians take a strengths-based approach and provide teens and young adults a safe, non-judgmental, warm and structured environment where they can focus on themselves, their problems with peers and family, their fears, hopes and dreams. Therapy offers a place for them to explore their feelings, feel heard and understood, and gain self-knowledge, self-awareness, and acceptance.

Together, we examine feelings, emotional resources, strengths and limitations, and communication and behavior patterns. Through counseling, we help individuals develop positive and adaptive coping skills to combat depression and anxiety, navigate social situations, handle homework and academic problems and pressures, and work toward independence. We teach skills that can improve communication and relationships with peers and family. Treatment is tailored to adolescents and young adults with a goal to decrease distress and build resilience that can improve functioning in all facets of life.

The clinicians at CAAT approach therapy from an extensive knowledge and use of evidence-based techniques and current research, combined with dynamic treatment options vetted over years of experience working with diverse populations. We engage with clients in active, solution-focused counseling, and work with them to establish individualized treatment goals that strengthen self-awareness and explore patterns in current behavior and relationships. 

Our therapists help clients problem-solve and cultivate skills to improve communication, decrease stress, create healthy and fulfilling relationships, and enhance their connection to self and overall sense of well-being.  We recognize that a strong therapeutic relationship is the foundation for successful therapy; our goal is to provide clients a safe, accepting, and non-judgmental space to explore their feelings and problems so we can offer competent and collaborative treatment. We believe progress is made when one feels understood, supported, capable, and empowered.