Licensed Clinical Psychologist PSY30828
Specializing in the treatment and assessment of Children, Adolescents, Families, and Couples
Dr. Callella offers a variety of services from individual psychotherapy (children, teens, and/or adults), couples and family therapy, and psychoeducational and social emotional testing.
Individual Psychotherapy
Children and Teens: With children and teens, I allow a space for them to identify and express emotions freely and start to learn self-regulation and effective coping. Teaching children and teens how to self-regulate and self-control are two of the many skills that help children and teens be successful in all aspects of their lives. Below are some of the reasons individuals seek treatment.
Children and Individual Therapy
Anxiety, irrational fears, difficulty with transitions, "meltdowns," things needing to be a certain way, excessive physical symptoms, not wanting to try new activities, hesitation, phobias, separation, attachment struggles, constant "sticky thoughts," sleep difficulties, and social struggles
Depression: negative self evaluation, self-deprecating comments about themselves/others, irritability, excessive and out of proportion "meltdowns,"lack of motivation, sleep difficulties, reliance on other validation, and melancholy affect
Other reasons: learning struggles, inattention and difficulty focusing, sibling difficulties, divorce, life transitions, trauma, distorted eating, and medical conditions
Teens and Individual Therapy
Anxiety, depression, life transitions, school difficulties, co-morbid difficulties (ex. ADHD with anxiety/depression), peer relationships, self-injurious behaviors, engaging in risky behaviors, identity difficulties, sexuality development, college and school choices, social pressures, trauma, distorted eating patterns, medical conditions, divorce, and family difficulties
Adults and Individual Therapy
Adults: Adults can seek individual therapy for many reasons. Some areas of focus are: relationship difficulties, anxiety, depression, divorce/separation, grief and loss, work difficulties, career changes, new transitions, eating struggles, trauma, and parenting.
Family Therapy
Our families are some of the most important relationships we have, and fostering a healthy family does take work. Family therapy focuses on the dynamics and structure that exist in each family. My perspective working with families is through Bowen and Structural Family Systems Theory. Family therapy sessions include all family members, and the focus is on changing the system as a whole to operate better together. We flourish in relationships as human beings, and families are worth trying to repair, fix, and heal.
Couples Therapy
Very often our intimate relationships do not take precedence in our lives, which lead to unhealthy patterns of communication and relationship difficulties. These struggles affect individuals and families.
Some adults seek couples therapy to work on the following: infertility struggles, infidelity, parenting, future plans, communication differences, sex and intimacy issues, and grief and loss.
My perspective of working with couples is through Bowen and Differentiation. This is for the individual to work on their own family of origin struggles, their role in the problem, and less focus on having their partner change. With the perspective on self, many couples start to change the way they handle conflict, and communication starts to become healthier because of their new found ability to self-validate, self-soothe, and self-confront rather than the blaming and shaming.
Psychoeducational Testing
Psychoeducational testing is used to help an individual succeed in an educational setting to use their strengths to work on their weaknesses. Psychoeducational testing is usually conducted to examine intellectual functioning, academic abilities, executive functioning skills, attention/concentration, social/emotional functioning rating scales, objective and projective assessments, auditory and visual abilities, and language fundamentals. The way testing is completed is through a strength and tailored approach to answer the question at hand. The testing process is intensive and thorough but very rewarding, as it is an objective way to measure an individual's current functioning to make proper recommendations for interventions and treatment.
The first process of testing is an evaluation of learning difficulties, family history, medical/psychiatric history, social/emotional behavior, educational history, and developmental history. At the end of this session, a testing plan is discussed. Next, testing usually is completed in 3-5 sessions of 1.5-2 hours (based on age and attention/concentration). After all testing is completed, a comprehensive report is conducted and a feedback session is scheduled to review all the results of testing and recommendations.
Social and Emotional Testing
Different than psychoeducational testing, social and emotional testing alone is done to aid in current treatment with more objective and projective measures to understand how an individual is socially and emotionally functioning in everyday life. These assessments target specific areas of anxiety, depression, self-esteem, trauma, OCD symptoms, social/peer difficulties and if learning struggles are related to social and emotional struggles rather than learning deficits.