We all want to feel aligned, centered, and balanced. We often seek therapy when we feel out of balance in some way. Individual therapy is for anyone who wants to improve their emotional wellness. Whether you are struggling with a specific situation or sense that you could feel more empowered, I look forward to supporting your development. In individual therapy, we work together to better understand the challenge and to find the growth opportunity within it. My goal is for clients to leave therapy as better versions of themselves than when they started the process. I support children (10+), adolescents, and adults in feeling more ease in their lives. I work with all genders and see many males who are looking to do this work with a male psychologist. I work with some clients to address life stressors or challenges including ADHD, anxiety, depression, school avoidance, peer relationships, parent/child relationships, and sports performance. In addition, I work with clients who don’t have a specific challenge but want to better understand their emotions, accept themselves and others, and feel more flow in their lives. I am honored to witness the courage of the people I work with to be honest, consider new perspectives, find their strength, and appreciate themselves.

I work with parents on parenting skills either as a parenting coach or in tandem with individual therapy with their children. I appreciate parents who recognize that children give us a chance to become better versions of ourselves. I enjoy teaching skills about how to handle discipline issues, address family conflicts, and meet the emotional needs of children. I share a parenting approach that is focused on improving communication and reducing power struggles in order to increase harmony in the family. I have been a participant at Parent University in Northbrook and created a parenting series for Whole Foods. I was invited as a parenting expert to the Chicago Children’s Museum’s “No Kids Allowed” parent education event. I am a certified instructor of the Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.) program and facilitate workshops on parenting skills.

A common question we are asked in our practice is what is the difference between academic coaching and tutoring. From our experience, a tutor works explicitly on daily homework completion and helps a student prepare for an upcoming assessment. In our practice, we provide academic coaching to middle school, high school, and college students to address global learning issues. We believe ALL students can be successful in the classroom. We believe ALL students have academic assets, and we need to tap into those assets to enable them to flourish.

I work with the student to better understand the barriers that may be getting in their way. Barriers may include skill deficits, social dynamics, and mindset. I am an educator who is currently teaching in a public high school. I have the knowledge to support your child to thrive because of my experience in the “trenches” since the early 1990s. I work on overarching skills to master school that are applicable to all disciplines, including executive functioning, managing anxiety, focusing strategies, and self-advocacy skills. I will look at homework with students but only as a vehicle for understanding the underlying issues. Academic coaching does not take the place of individual therapy. At the end of the academic coaching experience, my goal is for your student to feel more confident about their ability to successfully navigate school.

A writing coach offers support in all stages of writing (idea development, organization, grammar, and clarity) and for all kinds of writers. Some students seek out writing coaches because they absolutely hate writing and suffer from “writer’s block” whenever they are asked to write something. Other students love writing and are looking to develop their skills and broaden their writing experiences. Most students fall somewhere in between those two categories and are looking to strengthen their skills and demystify the writing process.

As a writing coach, I meet students where they are and develop individual plans to nurture, strengthen, and develop students’ writing skills. My primary areas of expertise are analytical, expository, and personal narrative writing, though I am happy to work on elements of fiction writing as well. My goal is to help the student become a confident, competent writer.

I focus explicitly on supporting a student’s homework assignments and classwork in Language Arts, English, and some social sciences. Some students seek tutoring support when they are struggling with comprehension or satisfactory completion of assignments. Others are looking for enrichment and ways to supplement existing assignments to gain a more sophisticated grasp of course material and skills. When appropriate, and if requested, I will reach out to the classroom teacher for additional feedback on areas the student needs to strengthen and develop.

I believe a successful tutor/tutee relationship is built on trust and respect. As I help students complete and understand classwork and assignments, I also help them build confidence and develop skills and strategies they can use in all of their classes.