I have been a practicing pediatric psychologist for almost 10 years. The term Pediatric Psychology means that I work with child and adolescent patients (ages 2-18) who have both physical health and behavioral health concerns. Often, these problems are overlapping and can reduce quality of life. I’ve treated children with a wide variety of concerns, such as anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), tic disorders, behavior problems, ADHD, sleep problems, chronic pain, and functional abdominal pain. My main focus has been working with children and families experiencing problems with feeding and gastrointestinal conditions as well as other chronic medical conditions. These include Cerebral Palsy, neurological conditions, and complications from premature birth. I was a proud member of the Comprehensive Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital for 5 years before deciding to open a practice to improve access to care in the Central Ohio area. I’ve spent the past 8 years learning from a multidisciplinary team of medical providers, dieticians, occupational therapists, speech therapists, nurses, and social workers about the many ways to treat complex conditions in children from birth through adolescence.
My treatment style uses primarily cognitive and behavioral foundations; however, I integrate many other theories into my practice as needed for any individual patient or family. This means that we will work on identifying the emotions, thoughts and behaviors that are having a negative impact in someone’s life and try to learn new skills in order to improve overall functioning. I use standardized measurements to track progress toward the goals that we establish together, and this data is shared openly as part of the treatment process. Parents and other family members are always actively involved in treatment because they help to support and reinforce the changes we work on in our therapy sessions.