News & Updates

If your child can explain a math concept perfectly but forgets to turn in the homework or can clean their room in a burst of motivation but can't seem to start on a normal Tuesday, you're not watching a motivation problem. You're watching executive function in action — or, more often, in struggle. What Is Executive Function? Executive function is the set of mental skills that let us plan, start tasks, manage time, hold information in mind, control impulses, and shift between

Parenting is HARD. Even under the best conditions—with support, knowledge, and resources—it is challenging. Add layers like family discord, loss, or unsafe environments, and it becomes even harder. Then add the demands of caring for children with intellectual, physical, or medical needs. While children are resilient and can bounce back from adversity, their early experiences lay the foundation for their adult well-being. It is this awareness that keeps so many caregivers awak

Stronger families start with stronger communication, and family therapy can provide a supportive space to reconnect, understand one another, and grow together. Every family has its own patterns, personalities, challenges, and ways of communicating. Even families who care deeply about one another can experience conflict, misunderstandings, emotional distance, or difficulty navigating major life changes. When these challenges begin affecting relationships at home, family therap

Explore how couples therapy can support better communication and deeper connection. Communication is one of the foundations of a healthy relationship. Couples may care deeply about one another and still struggle to communicate when emotions run high. A simple disagreement can quickly turn into defensiveness, frustration, silence, or an argument that feels like it is about much more than the original issue. For couples experiencing these challenges, couples therapy in Raleigh,

Big emotions can be hard for little ones to explain, and therapy can give children the tools to better understand and express what they're feeling. Children experience big emotions, but they don't always have the words or skills to explain what they're feeling. A child may become frustrated, withdraw from others, have frequent outbursts, or struggle with changes that seem small from an adult's perspective. These behaviors can sometimes leave parents wondering what is really g

The teenage years can bring big emotions and big changes, and therapy can give teens a supportive space to navigate stress, relationships, and everything in between. The teenage years can bring significant changes. Teens are developing their independence, navigating friendships and relationships, managing school and social expectations, and figuring out who they are. While some stress and emotional ups and downs are a normal part of growing up, there are times when a teenager

As we near the end of a long summer and prepare for all the avenues of life that shift with the seasons, finding moments of “rest” is paramount. For many, the idea of fall approaching draws up images of warm spiced drinks, cozy blankets, and maybe a book. For others, fall brings the excitement and anxiety of a new school season, a social transition, and unpredictable changes in routine. Wherever you are on this spectrum of anticipation, we have all thought to ourselves “boy-

Tips for Parents: Helping Your Child Transition into the New School Year The excitement of a new school year often fades after the first week, and that’s when the real adjustment begins. New teachers, changing routines, increased expectations, and unfamiliar social situations can be especially challenging for children with ADHD and executive function differences. Here are a few ways to support a smoother transition during the first few months of school: Give New Routines Time

I’m sure everyone has seen the famous “What’s in your wallet?” commercials. Lately, as we start thinking about going back to school (yikes!), I’ve been thinking about a different question: “What’s in your backpack?” I don't mean the physical school supplies, the lunchbox, or the notebooks, but what is inside our children's emotional backpack. The Invisible Backpack There is a theory in trauma-informed care called the "invisible suitcase"—or in our case, the invisible backpack

The Wired Generation: Why AI Can’t Replace Real Therapy for Kids and Teens Walk into any high school hallway or scroll through TikTok, and it’s obvious: our kids are facing a youth mental health crisis. With wait lists for child psychologists stretching out for months and the cost of care skyrocketing, a new, tech-driven trend has quietly taken over. Nearly 30% of teens have turned to AI chat bots—including general assistants like Chat GPT and Character AI, purpose-built emot

Understanding Attachment: What It Is & How Therapy Helps Us Heal Attachment has recently become a buzzword floating around social media. You may have heard people refer to themselves as having an “anxious” or “avoidant” attachment style or even try to tell you your type. Whether it’s used casually or clinically, the jargon can be confusing. Let’s bring some clarity to the concept of attachment and how attachment-informed therapy can help you (or your child) build healthier re

The Great Summer Camp Dilemma: When to Push Through the Jitters and When to Pull the Plug Every May and June, a familiar rhythm echoes through our child therapy practice. Parents call in, their voices a mix of exhaustion and worry, asking variations of the exact same question: “We’ve paid the deposit, the trunk is packed, but my child is in tears saying they don't want to go. Do I force them, or do I let them stay home?” Summer camp is a classic childhood rite of passage. It

Screens vs. Imagination: What Toy Story 5 Teaches Us About the Power of Play Therapy The Toy Story franchise has always been a stealthy, multi-decade masterclass in child development and human psychology. My eldest daughter’s first movie in 2011, at the mature age of 14 months, was for sure a Toy Story movie. It has beautifully tackled separation anxiety, growing pains, existential crises (looking at you, Forky), and the bittersweet nature of letting go. But Toy Story 5 hits

Mental Health Awareness for Fathers You can invest in a lot of things in life, but few of them have the potential to transform your life. Most men find it hard to believe that Mental Health Counseling is one of those things. I recently had a client who never considered therapy even though his friends and family prompted him to get help on numerous occasions. For over three years he constantly doubted and criticized himself, struggled with fits of anger, and had persistent bou

Parenting a Highly Sensitive Child: Understanding the Big Feelings Behind the Behavior If you're parenting a highly sensitive child, you may feel like you're navigating a world of bigger emotions, deeper reactions, and heightened awareness than other families seem to experience. While other children may brush off disappointment or adapt easily to change, your child may feel every experience intensely. The good news? Sensitivity is not a weakness. In fact, highly sensitive chi

Signs of Anxiety in Kids and Teens That Parents Often Overlook What is Anxiety? Anxiety is one of the most common experiences children and teens face, but it may not always present the way we expect. Before we can help, we have to be able to see and notice it. Anxiety is a normal function of being human. At its core, it is our nervous system’s way of keeping us safe. When our brain senses a potential threat, it activates the fight-flight-freeze response. Our heart rates incr

Parenting Girls with ADHD: What Often Gets Missed When people picture ADHD, they often imagine a young boy who is constantly moving, interrupting, climbing, or getting in trouble at school. But many girls with ADHD look very different — and because of that, they are often misunderstood, overlooked, or diagnosed much later in life. Growing up with family members diagnosed with ADHD later in life, and now raising two females with ADHD, it has been a learning curve of therapy, I

A father sat across from me in therapy and said something most people are too afraid to admit out loud: “I feel dread when I think about caring for my child.” His child has special needs. And in that moment, what mattered most wasn’t correcting the feeling or reframing it too quickly. Instead, the moment became about honoring honesty. Because underneath that word—dread—was not a lack of love. It was a nervous system under strain. A mind trying to make sense of a future it can

Empowering Parents to Help Anxious Kids: An Introduction to the SPACE Modality When a child is struggling with anxiety—whether it’s a fear of being alone, a specific phobia, or the rituals of OCD—our natural instinct as parents is to protect them. We might stay in their room until they fall asleep, check their homework five times to ease their "perfectionism" worries, or avoid certain restaurants that trigger their fears. In the clinical world, these behaviors are called acco

Talking to Teens Is Harder Than It Looks — Here’s How to Do It Mindfully If you’re parenting a teenage boy or girl, you’ve probably had moments where conversations feel…short, tense, defensive, or completely shut down. You ask them a simple question. They shrug. You push a little. They pull away. You get upset. They retreat. Sound like a familiar cycle? As a therapist who works closely with teens, I hear this from parents all the time: “I don’t know how to talk to my own chil