Advancing Minds' Services

Advancing Minds offers a broad array of evaluation and treatment services. Our evaluations are grouped into 3 main catagories: Educational, Emotional/Behavioral and ADHD. Each evaluation is tailored to your specific needs and often includes assessment of several areas of your child's functioning. For example, while an educational evaluation focuses primarily on your child's intellectual skills and learning style, it also offers a brief summary of your child's overall psychological functioning in areas such as attention, memory and emotion regulation.

Our treatment services are also wide ranging. We work with all ages, from parents of preschoolers through teens and adults, and are available for both short term and long term treatment. Therapy services are flexible and can often be set up to fit your schedule. You can read more about our therapists' areas of expertise below.

Educational Evaluations | Emotional and Behavioral Evaluations | ADHD Evaluations | Consultation | Psychotherapy

Educational Evaluations

Educational evaluations provide information to help parents better understand their child's personal style of learning and the skills they have mastered or continue to struggle with in school. Parents may use this information to help their child at home and to explain their child's unique needs to teachers and school staff.

Educational evaluations generally take about 15 hours to complete. They include thorough intellectual and educational testing, providing a detailed picture of a child's overall potential and specific areas of difficulty. Most evalutaions also include examination of attention and memory skills, and screening for emotional difficulties. Parents will meet with the evaluator before and after the evaluation, and children will spend approximately 6 hours in the clinic. Remaining hours are needed to score, interpret, and write the results. Educational evaluations are particularly useful for parents making decisions about school placement, school readiness, giftedness, and the need for additional educational services and accommodations.

Emotional and Behavioral Evaluations

Emotional and behavioral evaluations help parents better understand their child's inner life. Childhood and adolescence are crucial periods when young people learn to cope with difficulties, while developing their own sense of identity. This may be a stable and happy time of growth and accomplishment but may also include heightened emotional states and difficult patterns of behavior. Emotional and behavioral evaluations help parents understand thoughts and feelings underlying difficult child behavior, and devise concrete plans to address these difficulties.

Emotional evlauations generally take 20 hours to complete, and include a wide range of intellectual and emotional tests. Parents will meet with the evaluator before and after the evaluation, and children will spend approximately 6-9 hours in the clinic. Remaining hours are needed to score, interpret and write the results. Emotional assessments are generally indicated when children are in constant conflict with parents and authority figures, exhibit behaviors that are out of control, such as violence or self-harm, exhibit signs of sadness or worry, appear socially isolated and withdrawn, or exhibit poor performance in school.

ADHD Evaluations

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the more commonly diagnosed conditions in children. Many parents worry that it is over diagnosed and fear putting their child on medication unnecessarily. ADHD evaluations help parents discern the cause of attention difficulties and help rule out other symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, and learning difficulties, that often mimic ADHD.

A thorough ADHD evaluation takes approximately 12 hours. The evaluator will meet with parents, speak with teachers, observe the child in school, and meet for approximately 4 hours in the clinic with the child. Remaining hours are needed to score, interpret and write the results. Thorough and accurate assessment eliminates the agony of guesswork, allowing confident decisions to be made about treatment.

Consultation

Consultation is core to the work of Advancing Minds. It helps parents and professionals address specific concerns and develop concrete action plans to manage difficulties. It is generally short term, consisting of only one or a few sessions, and ends when parents and professionals feel they have a solid plan they can then use to manage their concerns.

Consultation with parents is part of all evaluations. It is also availabe as a stand-alone service. Stand-alone consultation may include:

• Helping parents understand results from previous evaluations.
• Meeting with school personnel to help explain evaluation results and to advocate for accommodations.
• Developing a plan for parents to manage their child's problem behaviors.
• Consulting with other professionals working with a child, such as physicians, psychiatrists, therapists, and tutors.

Psychotherapy

Advancing Minds provides psychotherapy to children, adolescents, families, and adults. In on-going psychotherapy, clients may better understand how their thoughts and feelings affect their actions. They may learn ways to manage difficult situations, transform self-limiting beliefs, and eliminate problem behaviors. When working with children and teens, parents are seen as vital to the change process, helping their children translate learning from the clinic to home and school. Your psychologist will help you design a program of individual, family, and parent consultation that will meet your needs.

Dr. Susan Anvin works primarily with elementary and middle school aged children and their parents. Her work integrates several types of psychotherapy, including cognitive-behavioral techniques, interpersonal skills building, and family systems techniques. Her areas of specialty include:

• Developing plans with parents to manage difficult behaviors
• Helping children overcome worries and anxieties
• Helping children learn social skills for coping with teasing and bullying
• Working with parents to manage symptoms of ADHD at home
• Helping children and teens overcome depression

Dr. Jenny Forman works primarily with adolescents, adults, and couples. She collaborates with clients using a variety of psychotherapy modalities to meet their individual needs. Her areas of specialty include:

• Assisting clients in understanding how their belief system shapes their identities, relationships, and behaviors
• Helping clients overcome problem behaviors at work, home, school, and in relationships
• Working with clients to manage troubling emotions, such as anxiety and depression
• Helping couples develop new ways to communicate and transform problem dynamics
• Assisting clients in finding meaning and purpose in their lives