Psychological Services Provided

Rachel Robb Avery, Phd provides a broad spectrum of assessment and psychotherapy services to children, adolescents and adults. All referral calls receive immediate attention and an Intake appointment is set up within 2 week, but can be scheduled as early as the same week as the call. With Adults, the Intake process last 1 to 2, 60 minutes sessions. The foci of these initial sessions is on identifying and defining the referral concerns and the outcome-based intervention approach most likely to bring successful resolution to the defined presenting problems. At the end of the initial evaluation period, a diagnostic formulation will be offered, recommendations for therapy discussed, and a course of treatment determined. With children and adolescents the Intake process involves 5, 60 minute sessions. With child and adolescent referrals typically a Psychological Assessment is recommended prior to the initiation of the therapeutic work. This approach strategy is recommended to allow recognition of the current referral concerns within a broader developmental, social-emotional and personality context. Beginning child or adolescent therapy with a psychological assessment process allows treatment to more specifically harness personal strengths and to target specific cognitive, emotional and behavioral challenges that interfere with both the child and the child’s school and family functioning. Under certain circumstances, parents will be asked to remain present in the playroom while their children are being evaluated. The first of the 5 sessions is for the parents and is used to take an extensive developmental history and problem definition for the child from the parents, 3 individual assessment sessions for the child or adolescent and one final appointment during which parents will be provided with a diagnostic formulation concerning their child/adolescent’s behavior and or/development as well as a recommendation with regard to the necessity and type of continued care. A Successful therapy outcome is the result of a good match between:

1. Therapist and Patient personality styles
2. Interventions offered and utilized and Problems for which psychological treatment is sought
3. Clearly defined and agreed upon treatment goals and sustainable accountability of both therapist and patient to the successful accomplishment of the defined treatment goals.

Problem resolution is an active collaborative process. The Doctor-patient relationship, otherwise known as the therapeutic alliance is created and nurtured through out the treatment experience. Attention is also focused on attending to and tracking problem-focused results.