Our approach to child and family issues is wholistic and based on positive psychology.
Consciously raising kids while balancing the demands of life, work and family relationships is challenging, rigorous, sometimes hilarious, frequently joyful and often puzzling. Our goal is to help parents and others involved in the lives of children understand what influences and drives behavior and learn what may work to increase more positive behavior and reduce problematic behavior.
We are a psychological and behavioral health services
practice specializing in issues that affect children of all ages and
the people and institutions with whom they interact. This includes
school, colleges, Courts, governmental organizations and other health
care and social service providers and agencies.
We do this most commonly by providing psychological assessments, clinical behavioral services and professional education to parents, school and medical personnel and other agencies interacting with children and families and by focusing on the following areas in working with children, adolescents and adults. A special area of focus is with children aged 5 and under.
Psychological Assessments
This includes academic,
psychological and neuropsychological testing and assessments, Some examples of how psychological assessments can be of help include:
Academic and School Applications
ADHD, LD & NLD evaluations. Evaluations for 504 and Chapter 766/Special Education. Second opinions about parent-school conflicts or behavior issues. Developmental Disabilities, such as birth defects, Autism and PDD. Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBAs).
Forensic and Disability Issues
Evaluations under the Americans with Disability Act.
Guardianship & Competency of minors and seniors.
Second opinions regarding psychological and psychiatric standard of care.
Disability and Worker's Compensation evaluations.
Consultative Evaluations (CEs) for Social Security Disability Insurance claims.
Independent Medical Evaluations (IMEs).
Family and Law Conflicts
Delinquency and reckless behavior.
Parenting evaluations and consultations.
Divorce issues, including high conflict and post-divorce disputes.
Custody/GAL and visitation issues.
Abuse, neglect and physical maltreatment.
Foster care and adoption.
Psychological Effects of Personal Injury
Consultations regarding general psychological damages and the hidden psychological effects of personal injury, including emotional trauma and "bystander" experiences. The effect of trauma and abuse on children - including emotional loss and abuse, physical and sexual abuse and witnessing domestic or other violence.
Psychological damage in children and adults caused by medical procedures, malfunctioning products or toxicity.
Cognitive-Behavioral Psychology & Therapy
There are many types of therapy, commonly called
“counseling” or “psychotherapy.” But not all psychologically based therapy is
equally effective when dealing with psychological issues – and anyone can be
called a “therapist,” whether licensed or not. Be sure that any psychological theray is done by a licensed
clinician – and there are many to chose from, including Psychologists, Social
Workers, Licensed Mental Health Counselors to name but a few.
There are many types of therapy, commonly called
“counseling” or “psychotherapy.” But not all psychologically based therapy is
equally effective when dealing with psychological issues. Among the types of
therapy we specialize in is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). That is, the
therapy focuses on what individuals think – that’s the ‘cognitive’, or
intellectual part – and how individuals behave. Thinking influences behavior
and vice-versa. CBT is suitable for a wide variety of issues and is easily
adapted to developmental and environmental needs.
REBT
Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy is a type of CBT that
focuses on the rapid change of self-defeating or otherwise troubling and
unhelpful thinking that may cause individuals to remain feeling trapped and
helpless in the face of life’s difficulties. REBT is quite effective in
teaching individuals to become more objective in identifying, understanding, solving and also testing
solutions to problems which then can lead to improved life functioning and an
improved emotional life.
ADHD Clinics
We provide quick, focused, accurate and helpful assessments
of attention, memory and cognition. These are especially useful in assessing
ADHD and similar or copycat executive functions. Our ADHD Clinics are cost
effective and held in various locations throughout our local service area on a
monthly basis.
Assessments times available are: from 8AM-10AM; 10AM-12PM;
1PM-3PM; 3PM-5PM.
Our next ADHD Clinic has not been scheduled.
Please call for more information.
Reservations must be made in advance.
Learning Disabilities (LD)
Learning Disabilities are found in people of any age,
occupation or skill level. Even geniuses can have a learning disability – or
more than one. Typically, a learning disability goes undiagnosed or
misdiagnosed for many years, first coming to light in high school, college or
even several years into a career. It’s likely that the LD was always present in
the individual, but rather was overlooked or ignored due to the individual’s
ability to hide it, use other
skills or abilities to compensate for it, or it was misunderstood as being
something else. Behavioral or emotional reactions to LD issues typically develop
– especially in school-aged children - and it is often those behavioral or
emotional reactions which may draw attention while the underlying LD is missed.
This is especially true with Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities (NVLD), which are
quite often misunderstood and not even evaluated during the school years, but
which very often can appear as social skills deficits, failure to adapt, and
inflexibility which may also bring someone with NVLD into conflict with
authority figures such as school personnel, job supervisors or the police.
Social Skills Groups - Focused and Free-Style.
An "open" or Free-Style group simply means that new participants may join a group already in progress at any time and can start their group experience later than earlier joiners. A "closed" group simply means that once a group has started, no new participants may join the join already in progress because it is closed to new participants until it ends and a new group starts. Each type of group has advantages for participants and we offer both kinds. Our closed groups focus on shyness, bullying and making friends; our open groups focus more on self-confidence, self-efficacy and self-esteem building.
Focused - for Shyness, Bullying and
Making Friends.
Social skills – including communication skills and
socializing appropriately in a variety of situations – are among the most
important skills needed in the modern world. Many otherwise highly skilled and
competent children may be bothered by shyness, social phobia, lack of
confidence or confusion when interacting with others in new or unfamiliar
social settings.
This may be even more true in children with verbally-based
Learning Disabilities (LD), Nonverbal Learning Disabilities (NLD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD), as they may have difficulty learning and adapting to the
social cues and nuances that are important to making friends, holding jobs and
getting along with others in modern life.
Our social skills groups are matched by developmental or
maturational age and skill level following a curriculum designed to develop
awareness and practice in self-monitoring, perceptive-other turn-taking and
group behavior.
We focus on three areas – Shyness, Bullying, and Making
Friends – and parents are expected to monitor the homework that each child may
bring home to practice between group meetings. Groups are limited to 6 children
and are held throughout the school year at our office.
Making Friends and Shyness:
Tuesday:
3:15-4:30 PM
4:30-5:45 PM
Bullying: Wednesday
3:15-4:30 PM
4:30-5:45 PM
Pre-registration is required and each group continues
for 6 weeks. Students may register
for one 6-week session or continue with consecutive 6-week sessions throughout
the school year. Each group meeting is $60 and there is a $15 registration fee
to cover sign up materials and intake questionnaires. All classes are held at Bonkerz Party Zone, located at 41 Long Pond Drive, South Yarmouth, MA. Class fees include a workbook, homework assignments and entrance fees to Bonkerz.
A brief (15-20 minutes)
registration meeting with the child and at least one parent is required prior
to joining a group. These groups are psychoeducational in nature and do not
replace group or individual therapy for the child. Not all children may be
suitable for our groups.
Free-Style - for Self-Development and Personal Goal Setting.
In some individuals, social skills are quite under-developed - to the point that they don't even have a basic foundation or sociability from which to build, or develop, the usual social interactions that people need today to make and keep friends and maintain a healthy lifestyle. In such cases, self-development, defined here as empathy, self-care, self-esteem and self-efficacy, is often the first necessary step to create or strengthen the basic building blocks of social skills upon which later skills can then be added. Our Free-Style Group is an open psychoeducational and therapeautic group. Participants range in age and ability level and the groups can be as small as two participants. Individuals who may not feel comfortable in our closed groups may feel very comfortable and "free" in these groups, where they can work on personal tasks on a limited socially-interactive environment without anxiety.
These groups take place on Saturdays, but a different day may be arranged on a more "tutorial" basis for individuals not yet even ready for the Saturday groups. Groups typically take place both outdoors and indoors on DiamondEdge Farm in Barnstable, a therapeutic environment focusing on equine-therapy.
Pre-registration is required and each group continues
year-round - except for inclement weather. Students may register
for one session or continue with consecutive sessions
throughout
the year, including vacations and summertime. Each group meeting is $50, a sliding scale is available and the treatment may be covered by insurance, depending on the coverage and plan. Session lengths vary from 30 minutes to two hours in length, depending on the ability level of the participant and there is a $15
registration fee
to cover sign up materials and intake questionnaires. All classes are
held at DiamondEdge Farm in Barnstable, MA.
A brief (15-20 minutes)
registration meeting with the child and at least one parent is required prior
to being scheduled for our Free-Style Groups.
Performance Anxiety (Stage Fright) for young performers, musicians and public speakers.
Children
are singing, dancing, acting and playing music at increasingly younger
ages. Students are routinely
expected to speak up in class and failure to do so may result in a lowered
grade for lack of class participation. High school and even middle school
students are now called on to give oral presentations to their peers. College
students – and certainly their parents – may be expected to make full
multi-modal presentations, including Power Point, to enhance their college or
business career. However, the same bold and self-confident child or adult at
home may be quite reluctant - or
even terrified - to perform in front of strangers. Stage Fright is quite common
and shouldn’t be allowed to stop a child, adolescent or adult from pursuing
their goals.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) was
discovered by Francine Shapiro, a psychologist in California who worked with
trauma and trauma survivors. It is
a so-called “power therapy” that has been especially helpful to individuals
dealing with anxiety, panic and trauma issues. Our staff is proficient in the
use of EMDR with children, adolescents and adults.
Play Therapy
The work of childhood is play. Quite often. the best therapeutic approach with children, especially very young children, is play therapy. Play therapy differs from standard psychotherapy procedures in that therapeutic play is the central therapeutic approach, not "talking" therapy.
All clinical services are under the direct supervision of Michael Abruzzese, Ph.D., HSPP. Dr. Abruzzese is a licensed clinical psychologist and a licensed school psychologist. He is also a Clinical Instructor at the Tufts University School of Medicine.
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