I earned my Master’s and Doctoral Degrees in Clinical Psychology from Loyola University in Maryland. I completed my predoctoral internship in pediatric psychology at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital where I gained extensive experience providing outpatient psychotherapy, feeding therapy and comprehensive psychological assessments to children from ages 2 through 19. I also provided inpatient psychology services to children affected by chronic and acute medical conditions.

I completed my postdoctoral fellowship in feeding psychology and autism at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital. This allowed me to focus on serving children with autism both as a feeding therapist in the Feeding Day Treatment Program and a diagnostician providing evaluations for children suspected of having autism spectrum disorders. My passion for play based assessment and dedication to serving families affected by autism spectrum disorders led to the development of the Assessment of Autism and Related Therapies Program (AARTS) at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital where I coordinated, administered and supervised hundreds of autism related diagnostic evaluations.

While at MWPH, I started building my private practice in 2012. I eventually transitioned my institutional work to Trellis Services in 2015, and served as the Director of Psychology Services there for a number of years. During this time, I worked on a collaborative research project with a group of developmental and behavioral pediatricians interested in examining new early screening measures to increase the identification of autism spectrum disorders in toddlers. Through my experiences, I have received extensive training in using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2), and have become research certified to administer the ADOS-2. Over the course of my career, I have grown as a clinician and diagnostician by working with some of the top researchers in the country in the Pediatrics and Developmental Neuroscience Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health.

In addition to my extensive experience in early child development and neurodevelopmental differences, I have honed my general assessment skills such that I have completed hundreds of comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations to identify attentional disorders, learning disabilities, and emotional challenges like anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. I have also taught psychological assessment to graduate students as an adjunct faculty member at Loyola University. I regularly consult with public and independent schools, and am well versed in the 504 and IEP processes. I have cultivated relationships with learning specialists at many of our Baltimore independent schools and enjoy working as a collaborative partner with school teams. I enjoy presenting, training and supporting educators, particularly those working in early childhood, as I feel it is important to see behavior through a developmental lens and take a skill-based approach to behavioral and emotional change.

I have a particular speciality in ADHD, and consider myself an “expert by experience,” as I immerse myself in ADHD literature, treatment, executive function development. This serves both my clinical practice, as well as the unique adventure of parenting children with attentional differences and self-regulation challenges. If we have the pleasure of working together you will see that I am clinically driven, while at the same time practically minded.

Although much of my early career work was in the field of autism diagnosis, over the years I have cultivated a general psychological practice in which I work therapeutically to treat attentional disorders, executive function weaknesses, anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, and behavioral disorders in children not affected by autism spectrum disorders.

I particularly enjoy parent coaching, which often focuses on supporting the parents of children ages 2-5 as we work together to increase the self-regulation and emotion regulation skills in their children to reduce frequent tantrums, emotion dysregulation, separation anxiety, school refusal and school related behavioral challenges, difficulties with transitions, sleep challenges, feeding difficulties, and potty training delays. When it comes to older children and adolescents, I have a particular knack for connecting with teens, but I equally enjoy the awe-inspiring task of entering the world of a young children through their eyes and experiences to structure their environmental experiences to support optimal development.

I generally take a creative and eclectic approach to my work, which enables me to draw from multiple therapeutic orientations, like cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, interpersonal therapy and attachment based theory, to best meet the needs of a particular child and family. I provide parent consultation, parent management training, and individual therapy to children and their parents throughout their transition from toddlerhood to adolescent independence.