Children’s Services

The MCC offers many services for toddlers through teens. Each of our Child Psychologists has a clinical specialty area, ensuring the highest quality care for your child.

Individual Therapy

The MCC child psychologists are experts in a range of psychotherapy theoretical orientations and techniques, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and play therapy. Our providers work to establish a therapeutic rapport first with the child and his/her parent(s). Then, building from the professional relationship, clinical theory and techniques are skillfully applied to obtain the desired changes. Please call today to schedule an appointment with one of our competent child psychologists to begin making the changes you would like to see in your child.

Teletherapy

The MCC now offers a teletherapy option for patients and families needing the added privacy and/or flexibility that remote service delivery allows. Our teletherapy service is provided by our same providers that provide in-person services, and in that way we maintain our high standards of offering a premium service. Our teletherapy platform is secure and HIPAA-compliant. Our office staff is available to help patients get acquainted with the technology, and to trouble-shoot any issues before the first session, and we continue to provide technical support as sessions continue over time. In most cases, teletherapy is reimbursed by insurance companies just as in-person sessions are. At this time, teletherapy is available for persons ages 14-70.

Autism Services

The Autism Spectrum Disorders program at Moore Counseling Center, P.C., is directed by Jennifer L. Morris, Ph.D.

Diagnostic Evaluations

The first step in working with a family of a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is accurate diagnosis.  The diagnostic evaluation can provide important information that can be used to help with treatment and school recommendations.  A typical evaluation includes a diagnostic play session (using the gold-standard Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – 2nd Ed.), parent interview, intellectual testing, and adaptive behavior assessment.  A detailed report, including recommendations, is written and discussed with each family.

Individual and Family Services

Because of the unique nature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), treatment goals are individualized to meet the needs of each child and family.  Individual and family therapy services involve developmental and behavioral interventions.  The Moore Counseling Center autism specialists were trained in using both structured teaching and behavioral therapy methods, and they typically use a skillful combination of these techniques in their work with children with ASD and their families.

Social Skills Groups

Because severe social skills deficits is one of three main areas of impairment in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), treatments to improve functioning in this area are essential for maximizing long-term outcomes. The MCC social skills groups for children with an ASD have emphases on perspective taking, interaction/play skills, communication, self-awareness and self-monitoring, and understanding emotions.

IEP Advocacy

The MCC’s Education Consultant is a certified Special Education teacher who works with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) on a daily basis, and who is highly experienced and skilled in the development of effective individualized education plans (IEP). Newly diagnosed families often benefit from her guidance and coaching during the IEP development and implementation process.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically-supported treatment for conduct-disordered young children that places emphasis on improving the quality of the parent-child relationship and changing parent-child interaction patterns. In PCIT, parents are taught specific skills to establish a nurturing and secure relationship with their child while increasing their child’s prosocial behavior and decreasing negative behavior. This treatment focuses on two basic interactions: Child Directed Interaction (CDI) is similar to play therapy in that parents engage their child in a play situation with the goal of strengthening the parent-child relationship; Parent Directed Interaction (PDI) resembles clinical behavior therapy in that parents learn to use specific behavior management techniques as they play with their child.

Potential Risks and Benefits of PCIT

PCIT is a lot of work AND it is often a lot of fun. There are potential risks of participating in PCIT that parents should consider as they make the commitment to PCIT. One such risk is the possibility of frustration during the initial stage of the treatment if parents are anxious to begin working immediately on “discipline” (or punishments) for misbehavior or are expecting an immediate solution for a long-standing or severe behavioral problem. In PCIT there is an initial emphasis on relationship-building and less directive methods of behavioral management in order to create a foundation of skills and interactions that are believed to maximize the chances for the potential benefits of treatment. Finally, parents may experience some discomfort in relation to the amount of effort and change required in their own behaviors, as well as in response to the highly directive interactions between therapist and parents during coaching session.

With these potential risks in mind, it is important to point out the potential benefits involved, as well. First, PCIT has been found to be a highly effective approach to treating children’s disruptive behaviors and noncompliance. In clinical studies, PCIT has resulted in improvements in children’s behavior at home, improved behavior in untreated siblings, reduction in parenting stress, and improvements in children’s self-esteem.

We’re looking forward to working with you and your child and to doing our best together to make a positive difference in your life.

Professional Administration

The PCIT Clinic at the Moore Counseling Center, P.C. is administered by Drs. Lindsey Bardwell, Ph.D., and Ilse Carrizales, Ph.D.

Drs. Bardwell and Carrizales trained in 2014 in the latest PCIT theory and techniques at Children’s Hospital in the Child Study Center.

 

Psychological Assessment

The MCC offers psychological assessment services for children as young as 18 months up to 18 years.

ADHD Testing

ADHD is an over-diagnosed, over-medicated phenomenon in our society at the moment. As psychologists, the MCC providers seek to first establish the legitimacy of an ADHD diagnosis via an array of psychological tests, including standardized, objective measures. The MCC ADHD examination is an extensive process that involves approximately four hours of testing, as well as gathering essential information from the child’s parent(s) as well as from the child’s teacher. The MCC psychologists are conservative in their diagnosis of ADHD, and parents can rest assured that their child will not be carelessly diagnosed or unnecessarily medicated after receiving one of our detailed evaluations.

Autism Testing

The first step in working with a family of a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is accurate diagnosis.  The diagnostic evaluation can provide great information that can be used to help with treatment and school recommendations.  A typical evaluation includes a diagnostic play session (using the gold-standard Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – 2nd Ed.), parent interview, intellectual testing, and adaptive behavior assessment.  A detailed report, including recommendations, is written and discussed with each family.

Emotional Functioning

Mental health diagnoses are not discreet, meaning that there is a high degree of overlap among mental health conditions. Often, a close examination of symptoms is necessary to tease apart and accurately identify and label a mental illness. For example, it is the opinion of the MCC psychologists that bipolar disorder should be thoroughly investigated and substantiated via psychological assessment before anti-psychotic, anti-seizure, and/or mood stabilizing drugs are introduced as a treatment. Often, what would appear to by symptoms of a bipolar depression are in fact better explained by substance abuse, a personality disorder, a mixed uni-polar depression, or a combination of conditions. It is the MCC philosophy that accurate diagnosis should always precede treatment.

Learning Disorder Assessment

While health insurances rarely cover this service, the early identification of a learning disorder can help prevent a child from developing negative attitudes about him/herself and about school. If a legitimate learning disorder is present, the MCC psychological report will provide the evidence necessary to substantiate the need for accommodations in the child’s school.

Group Therapy

Group therapy is an underutilized means of psychological treatment. Therapeutic elements for change are present in group therapy processes that are not available in the context of individual therapy.

Social Skills

The value of effective social skills in today’s society cannot be underestimated. The MCC provides a range of social skills groups to cover different sets of ages, and different underlying issues (e.g., autism, ADHD). Please call to inquire about what social skills groups are upcoming, and to be placed on the wait-list.

DBT For Teens

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) has been demonstrated in the professional literature to be an effective treatment for adolescent issues such as self-harming behaviors and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). The MCC’s DBT group for teens is designed for teens who have a history of cutting or other forms of self-harm, as well as for teens experiencing depression, anxiety, and/or interpersonal difficulties. Group size is limited to 8 teens, and the group runs weekly for 12 weeks. Please call to request more information or to be placed on the group’s wait-list.

IEP Consultation

What help can a parent expect to receive from an Education Consultant?

An Education Consultant will:

  • meet with the parents to review the psychologist’s report and discuss what implications his/her findings may have for their child in the school setting
  • help parents identify the most pressing issues in the child’s education (academically or behaviorally) that interferes with the child reaching his/her potential
  • include the parents in developing possible IEP goals that parents can present to the child’s Special Education teacher and other IEP team members, and request to be included in the annual IEP
  • inform and advise the parents on different data collection possibilities to request in the IEP meeting
  • discuss with parents their rights and roles in developing and tracking progress, in conjunction with the other members of the student’s IEP team, in their child’s educational program

Parent Comments:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Nicole,

I just wanted to take a minute and let you know that on behalf of my father, Hannah’s step-mom and myself we’re so impressed with your involvement with this difficult situation. Your professional conduct during the rough spots was so impressive. We finally feel there is hope and there will be resolution. We know it will not be corrected overnight but we are headed in the right direction. Most importantly I feel having you guiding us in the best interest of Hannah we could not be in better hands.  – Connie G.

Medication Management

At the MCC, no medication is prescribed for a child until after an MCC psychologist has diagnosed a mental health condition and determined that a medication evaluation would be a necessary and helpful adjunct to psychotherapeutic treatments. The MCC medication provider requires that children receiving medications are also receiving individual therapy, in an effort to reduce over time the need for medication. The MCC is conservative in its recommendation and prescriptions for medications, and very rarely are any potentially habit-forming medications prescribed.