Heidi Van Horne, Psy.D.

I am available to discuss your concerns with you as part of a free initial phone consultation. This consultation enables us to clarify whether I might be the right person for you to work with regarding your concerns. You will not be charged for this initial consultation. Rather, it enables you to decide if you would like to come and talk with me further. It is also a way for me to determine if I will be able to address your areas of concern. If through this consultation it becomes clear that I will be unable to help you, I will be happy to provide you with referrals for professionals who may be better able to meet your needs.

After meeting with a child or family and learning more about the nature of their difficulties, I utilize a variety of therapeutic techniques that I believe will best meet their needs. My overall approach to working with children and families is collaborative, strength-based, and solution-focused. I find that actively engaging my clients in an open dialogue about the problems being experienced is most effective. In this way they can begin to feel a more active part of the solution as they work to understand the nature of the difficulty they are experiencing. Focusing on each child or family’s strengths, rather than weaknesses, helps them to both build on their strengths and strengthen their areas of weakness. While this type of approach guides my clinical work with my clients, some of the more specific techniques that I find to be helpful include the following:

Psychodynamic Therapy – A longer term therapy that works to uncover factors that contribute to difficulties in emotional regulation, behavior, and interpersonal functioning. This type of therapy can lead to greater self-awareness, healthier relationships, and a greater enjoyment of life.

Play Therapy – This approach can be very helpful for children in resolving interpersonal difficulties, strengthening the ability to recognize and express their feelings appropriately, and working towards achieving optimal development through the therapeutic use of play.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – Research has demonstrated that cognitive and behavioral therapy approaches can be highly effective in treating a variety of psychological problems, including anxiety and depression. These types of therapy involve the introduction of techniques to help people understand and change their thought patterns and reduce undesired behaviors. In essence, cognitive and behavioral therapies help people to develop greater self-awareness and change the ways in which they think about themselves in order to feel better.

Family Therapy – In family therapy, problems experienced by individual family members or by the family as a whole are addressed. The family is understood as a system within which each individual plays a role. Styles of communication, patterns of behavior, and interpersonal functioning are explored in order to uncover and better understand areas of difficulty and generate solutions to address areas of concern.

Parent Consultation – Working with parents to better understand and address their children’s needs. This type of consultation can be adjunct to a child’s individual therapy as needed (e.g., weekly, monthly), for parents who are struggling to address their child’s behavioral difficulties, or for parents who simply wish to strengthen their parenting skills.

Supportive Therapy – On-going therapeutic support can be helpful for a number of issues that children and families must face, including traumatic events and other on-going areas of difficulty, including death, illness, divorce, school issues, and self-esteem.