Who We Are
We are anxiety specialists. We provide evidence-based treatments for anxiety disorders, specializing in social anxiety, selective mutism, separation anxiety, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and related issues. Our goal is to help you live a valued life in the presence of anxiety and, to do this, we treat the anxious-avoidance cycle you may find yourself in. Anxious avoidance is when a person avoids something that makes them anxious (which is normal and expected). However, when avoidance interferes with your life and keeps you from living out your goals, that's when avoidance (not anxiety) becomes problematic. We are specialists who can help you learn how to approach vs. avoid.
For example, a person with social anxiety avoids social interactions. A person with selective mutism avoids talking and is "rescued" by others who talk for them. A person with separation anxiety has significant fears that something will happen to their loved ones while they're apart and, though counterintuitive, the reassurance they receive feeds that fear.
If you find yourself in an anxious-avoidance cycle, the good news is that anxious-avoidance is actually very treatable with exposure therapy. We treat children, adolescents, and adults in the clinic, home, school, or community settings. We focus on where the fear is activated and work towards approach vs. avoidance using small, manageable steps.
We provide individual sessions, group sessions, and intensive sessions. Some individuals need individual 1:1 sessions, some need group sessions, and some need both. Sometimes exposure therapy delivered in 1-hr weekly doses is not enough to extinguish the fear. If that's the case, we provide intensive treatments, too, up to 6 hours of treatment in one day! Whether your symptoms are mild, moderate, or severe, exposure therapy delivered intensively and frequently works faster than 1-hr weekly doses. If your symptoms reduce with 1-hr weekly sessions, and/or you're comfortable with the pace of your recovery, then we continue with the 1-hr weekly protocol. Our goal is to tailor your intervention to help you recover as quickly as possible and in the most cost-effective way as possible.
We are scientist-practitioners. We tailor your treatment protocol based on your symptom severity, your goals for recovery, and what approaches are validated in treatment research. The specific validated approaches we use include exposure and response prevention (ERP), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) modified PCIT for selective mutism (PCIT-SM), and motivational interviewing (MI). There is not one treatment that works for all, therefore we may adapt a protocol or combine treatment interventions to maximize results. We collaborate with you to help you make an informed decision about your care.
Adventure Camp 2024
Adventure Camp is our annual 30-hour intensive treatment for children with selective mutism. Adventure Camp takes place in August of every year and is designed to provide a school simulation in which exposure therapy is applied to treat selective mutism and social anxiety.
Learn More About Adventure Camp