Tag

neuropsychological evaluations

Feb 17
6

When Parents and Kids Have BIG Emotions

By | NESCA Notes 2020

By Miriam Dreyer, Ph.D.

Pediatric Neuropsychologist Fellow

Brianna Sharpe’s recent essay for the New York Times – Parenting section titled, “I’d Like to Melt Down When My Kids Do,” captures an essential challenge of parenting – managing one’s own emotions when your child is having big and difficult feelings. Ms. Sharpe writes about her own extensive training as a mental health professional and how even with lots of experience working with children, she was not prepared for the emotional demands of parenting. She writes, “. . . like all preschoolers, my son needs an anchor when the waters get rough. But just when he needed me most, I found myself being pulled under by my own emotions. Although I never called him names or outright accused him of being at fault, I would yell in anger when hurt. My irrational response was often, ‘Why would you do that?!’ Once the red haze faded, I knew he was doing just what preschoolers are designed to do – but I had a hard time reconnecting with him.”

Ms. Sharpe beautifully depicts the intricate link between a child and a parent’s emotions. As parents, one of our essential roles throughout our children’s lives is to help them regulate. From birth, our job is to love, soothe, feed, attend and help our kids make sense of their feelings. This is a hard job, made even more complicated by the nuances and complexities of our own emotional lives.

Emotion regulation is a multifaceted process. As defined by Gross (1998), emotion regulation involves conscious and unconscious processes that operate both before an emotional response is generated and after it occurs. He writes that emotion regulation consists of “processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions.” Challenges with emotion regulation are a component of many of the presenting problems we see at our center. Children with ADHD can struggle with emotional impulsivity, shifting and modulating emotional responses. Individuals with depression and anxiety face challenges balancing positive and negative feelings, as well as controlling irrational thoughts and worries. Difficulties with emotion regulation for individuals on the Autism spectrum are also common and intersect with social/emotional and behavioral problems that can arise with symptoms related to rigidity, self-direction and repetitive, self-soothing behaviors.  Symptoms associated with traumatic stress, such as dissociation, mood lability and alexithymia, all interfere with one’s ability to regulate emotionally. Even challenges like communication disorders and other learning disabilities are related to emotion regulation since they generate anxiety and can impede expressing oneself using language, which is a key regulatory process. In fact, theorists are now conceptualizing emotion regulation as a possible unifying, underlying component across psychological disorders (Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Schweizer, 2010).

What are we, as parents, to do then in the face of our children’s and our own stormy emotions?  How do those of us caring for children who are struggling help them while attending to our own complicated emotional processes? A helpful framework for considering these questions comes from researchers who focus on attachment relationships in parenting, mentalization, as well as the mindfulness and self-compassion literature. 

  • Cultivate self-compassion. Parenting is hard, as is childhood. A stance of self-compassion which acknowledges challenges and encourages kindness to oneself helps move out of cycles of self-blame and anger.
  • Encourage curiosity about your own and your child’s emotions. Developing awareness of our own and our children’s emotional lives helps create a buffer in moments of heightened emotional arousal and can shed light on challenging patterns and interactive cycles.
  • Take a pause. Try breathing and mindfulness exercises to regain calm in difficult moments.
  • Consult with a therapist for parent guidance. There are many different types of parenting programs and support that can help tailor strategies and target complicated dynamics within family systems.

 

References

Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical psychology review, 30(2), 217-237.

Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of general psychology, 2(3), 271-299.

Sharpe, B. (2019, June 21). I’d like to melt down when my kids do.  The New York Times.

 

About the Author

Dr. Dreyer enjoys working with children, adolescents and families who come to her office with a wide range of questions about learning, social and emotional functioning. She is passionate about helping children and parents understand the different, often complex, factors that may be contributing to a presenting problem and providing recommendations that will help break impasses – whether they be academic, therapeutic, social or familial.

Dr. Dreyer joins NESCA after completing her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the City University of New York.  She most recently provided psychological assessments and comprehensive evaluations at the Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School for children and families with a wide range of presenting problems including trauma, anxiety, psychosis, and depression.  During her training in New York, she conducted neuropsychological and psychological testing for children and adolescents presenting with a variety of learning disabilities, as well as attentional and executive functioning challenges.  Her research focused on developmental/complex trauma, as well as the etiology of ADHD.

Dr. Dreyer’s experience providing therapy to children, adolescents and adults in a variety of modalities (individual, group, psychodynamic, CBT) and for a wide range of presenting problems including complex trauma/PTSD, anxiety, depression, ADHD, and eating disorders informs her ability to provide a safe space for individuals to share their concerns, as well as to provide tailored recommendations regarding therapeutic needs.

Before becoming a psychologist, Dr. Dreyer taught elementary and middle school students for nine years in Brooklyn, NY.  She also had an individual tutoring practice and specialized in working with children with executive functioning challenges, as well as providing support in writing, reading and math.  Her experience in education informs both her understanding of learning challenges, as well as her capacity to make specific and well-informed recommendations.

She received her Masters in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College, and her B.A. in International Studies from the University of Chicago.

 

Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents (NESCA) is a pediatric neuropsychology practice and integrative treatment center with offices in Newton, Massachusetts, Plainville, Massachusetts, and Londonderry, New Hampshire, serving clients from preschool through young adulthood and their families. For more information, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.

 

To book an appointment with one of our expert neuropsychologists, please complete our Intake Form today. For more information about NESCA, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.

 

Jun 03
4

What’s Up, Postdocs?

By | NESCA Notes 2019

NESCA currently enjoys having three pediatric neuropsychology fellows on its roster: Caroline Kleeman, Psy.M., Miriam Dreyer, Ph.D., and Zachary Cottrell, Psy.D, LMHC. NESCA’s postdoctoral positions are two-year engagements allowing clinicians who have completed or are finalizing their doctoral degrees to advance their training and acquire/hone their skills in preparation for their long-term careers.

We recently sat down with two of our fellows to learn more about their postdoctoral experiences now that they have almost reached the one-year mark in their time at NESCA.

By Jane Hauser
Director of Marketing & Outreach

Tell us about your postdoctoral experience at NESCA so far.

Both: As postdocs, we sit in on every phase of an evaluation – from the intake session to the administering and scoring of the tests, interpretation of the results, feedback session with parents, and writing of the report.

We are always working with a supervising clinician during evaluations, and we participate in a training seminar led by NESCA’s Director of Training Dr. Angela Currie. We get feedback from our supervising clinicians throughout every stage in the testing process.

Caroline: I was fortunate to have worked at NESCA as a practicum student in 2016-2017. It’s been great to be back here in a different role. I’ve had the chance to work closely with Dr. Alissa Talamo during my fellowship.

Miriam: I’ve been on board here at NESCA since September 2018, so almost a year now. I worked closely with Dr. Amity Kulis, and now I am working with Drs. Nancy Roosa and Stephanie Monaghan-Blout.

Based on your experiences at NESCA, have you identified a specialty you would like to focus on?

Caroline: Autism has been and remains my area of interest. I also really enjoy working with children with learning disabilities and collaborating with schools to get the right plans in place for the kids we work with. I’ve really enjoyed and benefited from attending school observations and sitting in on Team meetings.

Miriam: Before I went to graduate school, I was a teacher. My area of interest is the intersection of emotional and learning challenges, including executive functioning difficulties and attentional disorders.  In graduate school, my research and therapy training focused on trauma. So, my goal is to combine my clinical and educational experiences to support families in understanding how emotional experiences impact learning in children and adolescents.

 Why did you choose to do your postdoctoral work at NESCA?

Caroline: As I mentioned, this is my second time being a part of the NESCA team. I came back to NESCA for my postdoc work because I valued the collegial environment. I also felt I could benefit from the different clinical staff and their various areas of expertise. It’s such a great experience to work in a practice where someone always knows the answer to my most challenging questions. I really appreciate the model of teaching at NESCA. Because of the apprenticeship model, there’s so much in-the-moment teaching with our clinical supervisors that I benefit from.

Miriam: I was really Interested in the apprenticeship model of training at NESCA as well. It’s a unique arrangement in that postdocs are with a supervising clinician every step of the of the evaluation process. We receive a lot of mentoring here, which is very important to me. I also value the integrated nature of the reports NESCA produces, which portray the sometimes complex kids we see in a nuanced way. Again, this is very important to me in my continued learning.

Both: We get to work with different people here who do different things. It’s given us exposure to so many new areas of neuropsychology that we may not have seen elsewhere. There are a lot of experts here to learn from.

What makes NESCA different? What did you find most beneficial?

Miriam: The structure of NESCA’s training program and the emphasis on continued learning throughout the organization are both so valuable. We frequently have seminars where third-party speakers come in to educate our staff on new areas of psychology and treatments so we all stay current with the latest evidence-based approaches. We also have a weekly case conference where all of our clinicians gather to discuss complex cases and to share resources, knowledge, and experiences to benefit the case at hand. There is a heavy emphasis on learning within the practice, so I am constantly getting exposed to new ideas. I think that’s a valuable and unique asset of NESCA.

Caroline: I absolutely agree with the fact that we are really benefiting from the heavy emphasis on learning and the years of experience our clinicians have. Their willingness to share the knowledge they’ve gained with each other and us is a great benefit to our clients and to my own education. I have also learned so much from our clinicians who attend and bring back such good information from conferences as well as the conferences I’ve had the opportunity to attend.

What’s been your favorite and your most challenging experience so far at NESCA?

Miriam: Each case is unique, so I’ve had lots of exposure to new areas of neuropsychology. Every person who walks in the door presents new opportunities for learning. While this is one of my favorite aspects of NESCA, it is also challenging. With the unique caseloads we take on, there is a lot to learn about the different profiles. As fellows, we do not yet specialize in one area, so we are getting a broad education across domains of neuropsychology. For every new case, there are unique recommendations tailored to that individual that require research, which is an important part of our training.

Caroline: Seeing each child who comes to NESCA as a unique individual is probably my most rewarding and challenging part of being in this practice. Getting to work with some of the more complex profiles out there is exciting to me, but is obviously a challenge, too. There’s always a lot to be learned about each child, and that can take some time to do.

What advice can you share with others looking into this field or who are looking for the right place for their postdoc experience?

Miriam: It’s a great opportunity to be here. My advice is to visit NESCA for an interview, see what it’s like here and learn about the different specializations of the practice’s clinicians. In your search, look for a postdoc position where you get varied training and exposure to a lot of different cases, even if they aren’t in your specific area of interest.

Caroline: Neuropsychology is a very fulfilling career. Every day and every child are different, so it never gets boring. Of course, it can also be frustrating in that there are sometimes barriers to kids getting what they need, whether in school or with community resources not being available. In those moments, you have to be creative and problem-solve. That said, the rewards far outweigh the challenges.

 

About Pediatric Neuropsychologist Fellow Miriam Dreyer, Ph.D.:

Dr. Dreyer enjoys working with children, adolescents and families who come to her office with a wide range of questions about learning, social and emotional functioning. She is passionate about helping children and parents understand the different, often complex, factors that may be contributing to a presenting problem and providing recommendations that will help break impasses – whether they be academic, therapeutic, social or familial.

Dr. Dreyer joins NESCA after completing her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the City University of New York.  She most recently provided psychological assessments and comprehensive evaluations at the Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School for children and families with a wide range of presenting problems including trauma, anxiety, psychosis, and depression.  During her training in New York, she conducted neuropsychological and psychological testing for children and adolescents presenting with a variety of learning disabilities, as well as attentional and executive functioning challenges.  Her research focused on developmental/complex trauma, as well as the etiology of ADHD.

Dr. Dreyer’s experience providing therapy to children, adolescents and adults in a variety of modalities (individual, group, psychodynamic, CBT) and for a wide range of presenting problems including complex trauma/PTSD, anxiety, depression, ADHD, and eating disorders informs her ability to provide a safe space for individuals to share their concerns, as well as to provide tailored recommendations regarding therapeutic needs.

Before becoming a psychologist, Dr. Dreyer taught elementary and middle school students for nine years in Brooklyn, NY.  She also had an individual tutoring practice and specialized in working with children with executive functioning challenges, as well as providing support in writing, reading and math.  Her experience in education informs both her understanding of learning challenges, as well as her capacity to make specific and well-informed recommendations.

She received her Masters in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College, and her B.A. in International Studies from the University of Chicago.

About Pediatric Neuropsychologist Fellow Caroline Kleeman, Psy.M.:

Caroline Kleeman comes to NESCA with experience providing evaluations for children with a range of neurodevelopmental profiles.  She has focused on assessing children with autism spectrum disorder, including those presentations accompanied by cognitive delays, language impairments, or genetic disorders.  She also enjoys evaluating children with academic difficulties stemming from learning disorders or attention/executive function disorders.

Ms. Kleeman’s approach to testing recognizes that children are so much more than a list of scores.  Combining her own careful observations with input provided by parents and teachers, Ms. Kleeman strives to differentiate between skill deficits or performance deficits, while also identifying unique strengths.  Additionally, drawing on her applied behavior analysis (ABA) background, Ms. Kleeman looks beyond the individual to identify helping and hindering features of the surrounding environment.  The result is meaningful, highly individualized educational and therapeutic recommendations.

Ms. Kleeman received her Sc.B. with honors from Brown University, where she studied cognitive science.  Focusing on early childhood, she conducted research on the role of sleep (especially naps!) in cognitive development.  After college, Ms. Kleeman worked as a therapist at Nashoba Learning Group, using the tenets of ABA to provide instruction across educational, vocational, behavioral, and adaptive domains.

Bridging between psychology and education, Ms. Kleeman is finalizing her doctorate in school psychology at Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology.  Her dissertation is investigating the role that Sesame Street’s autistic muppet, Julia, could play in early childhood social and emotional learning (SEL) programs.  She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Center for Children with Special Needs in Connecticut, where, in addition to psychoeducational evaluations, she provided ABA therapy and ABA-based reading intervention for children across the autism spectrum.

 

Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents (NESCA) is a pediatric neuropsychology practice and integrative treatment center with offices in Newton, Massachusetts, Plainville, Massachusetts, and Londonderry, New Hampshire, serving clients from preschool through young adulthood and their families. For more information, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.

 

To book an appointment with one of our expert neuropsychologists, please complete our Intake Form today. For more information about NESCA, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.

 

Oct 01
0

25 Miles of Inspiration

By | NESCA Notes 2018

 

By: Nancy Roosa, PsyD
Pediatric Neuropsychologist, NESCA

Last Saturday, I found myself – as part of Team NESCA- at the starting line for a bike ride, waiting apprehensively for my turn to start, carefully balancing my bike between my legs, stretching my legs and checking my tires.  I was a bit nervous, because I’m not an experienced or competitive bike rider.  But this was not a race: it was the 28th annual Rodman Ride for Kids, one of the most congenial, supportive athletic events you can imagine and my apprehension soon faded among the general high spirits of riders and volunteers around me.  Team NESCA’s turn soon came and we took off, surrounded by about 1,500 other joyful riders.

The joy of the day was primarily because all of us riders had a shared goal – to raise money for programs that benefit at-risk children across Massachusetts.  Team NESCA took to the road to support one of our favorite local nonprofits: Asperger’s/Autism Network (AANE), which provides a wide variety of educational, outreach and supportive programs for individuals and families affected by autism. For more information about AANE please see their website.  https://www.aane.org/.

The Rodman Ride is unique.  Instead of being run by and for one large entity, the Rodman for Kids charity serves as the organizational powerhouse behind the ride, allowing even small nonprofits to participate in a major fundraiser.  About 45 small nonprofits, like AANE, take advantage of the fact that the Rodman for Kids charity does all the organizational legwork: setting up a website for fundraising, identifying and marking the course, and enlisting an army of volunteers to make the race happen.  Any social service agency that supports at-risk children in Massachusetts can participate.  There is no fee; in fact, the Rodman organization adds 3% to any dollars raised. Over the years, the Rodman Ride has raised about $144 million dollars!

 

Stephanie Monaghan-Blout and Nancy Roosa

 

One fun part of the day was reading the jerseys of all the other riders and feeling uplifted just by seeing how many organizations are working to support at-risk children in our state.  At this time, when so much of the daily news is disheartening, it was inspiring to be surrounded by thousands of people who are putting time and energy into supporting vulnerable children.  Beyond the riders, over 500 other companies sponsor the volunteer activities that support the ride.  We rode with a friend who was riding for Trinity Foundation, and were surrounded by many riders from Mass Mentoring and Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters.  Our cheerful announcer, who kept us all organized at the starting line, introduced various groups and invited them to speak about their efforts.  Did you know there is a nonprofit group called Above the Clouds, which takes children with disabilities on plane rides?  Who knew?

Team NESCA was thrilled to be part of the day; we, along with about 20 other riders for AANE, helped AANE raise over $56,000 to support their programming for the coming year.

And we had fun.  It was a beautiful ride, with perfect weather, through the mostly flat streets around Foxborough and Lake Massapoag.  There were volunteers ringing cowbells and shouting directions and encouragement anytime we had to make a turn.  The water stops had piles of snacks – from bananas to chocolate energy bars – and a DJ pumping out bouncy songs.  There was breakfast and coffee at the beginning and a great barbeque lunch and beer at the end.

All in all, it was so inspiring to join with so many other people who are committed to helping at-risk youth.  I’ll be buying my next car at Rodman Ford.  In the meantime, who’s up for riding with Team NESCA and AANE next year?

 

 

About the Author:
Roosa

Nancy Roosa, PsyD has been engaged in providing neuropsychological evaluations for children since 1997. She enjoys working with a range of children, particularly those with autism spectrum disorders, as well as children with attentional issues, executive function deficits, anxiety disorders, learning disabilities, or other social, emotional or behavioral problems. Dr. Roosa’s evaluations are highly-individualized and comprehensive, integrating data obtained from a wide range of standardized assessment tools with information gained from history, input from parents, teachers and providers, and important observations gleaned from interacting with the child. Her approach to testing is playful and supportive. Her evaluations are particularly useful for children with complex profiles and those whose presentations do not fit neatly into any one diagnostic box.

 

To book a consultation with Dr. Roosa or one of our many other expert neuropsychologists, complete NESCA’s online intake form. Indicate “Consultation” and your preferred clinician in the referral line.

 

Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents (NESCA) is a pediatric neuropsychology practice and integrative treatment center with offices in Newton, Massachusetts, and Londonderry, New Hampshire, serving clients from preschool through young adulthood and their families. For more information, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.