About the Center for Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health
The Center for Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health is dedicated to improving the lives of children, teens, and their families. National statistics show that up to 1 in 5 U.S. youth are diagnosed with a mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder, and many also face challenges related to stress, family transitions, or substance use. Our Center exists to meet this need with comprehensive, evidence-based care that empowers young people and supports their caregivers.
We know that treatment success depends on strong therapeutic relationships, so our clinicians focus on creating a safe, supportive environment where youth feel understood, respected, and engaged. Through personalized treatment plans, we help children develop the skills they need to succeed in school, in friendships, and in life.
What We Treat
- Anxiety & Depression
- Emotion regulation difficulties
- Behavioral challenges
- ADHD
- School refusal & academic difficulties
- Separation anxiety
- Trauma & post-traumatic stress
- Grief and loss
- Anger management
- Peer difficulties & bullying
- Low self-esteem
- Parent/child & sibling conflict
- Coping skill development
- Divorce and separation adjustment
- Social skills building
Signs It May Be Time to Seek Help
You may want to consider counseling for your child or teen if you notice:
- Sudden aggression or defiance
- Withdrawal from friends or activities
- Frequent anger outbursts or tantrums
- Academic decline
- Nightmares or fear of sleeping alone
- Unexplained physical complaints
- Loss or increase in appetite/weight changes
- Difficulty with reading, writing, or math (not grade-appropriate)
- Substance use or risky behaviors
- Significant changes in mood or personality
Individualized Care for Children, Adolescents & Families
Children and adolescents experience emotional and behavioral difficulties differently depending on their age, developmental stage, family environment, relationships, and individual strengths. Effective treatment should reflect those differences.
At the Center for Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health, our clinicians provide developmentally appropriate, evidence-based, goal-oriented, and strengths-focused care. We work collaboratively with children, adolescents, young adults, and their caregivers to understand what is getting in the way and develop practical strategies for improving emotional well-being, behavior, relationships, and everyday functioning.
Our approach is built around three principles:
Evidence-Based
Treatment is informed by research-supported approaches shown to help children and adolescents with emotional, behavioral, and relational concerns.
Goal-Oriented
Treatment focuses on meaningful goals identified collaboratively with the child or adolescent and their caregivers, such as reducing anxiety, improving behavior, strengthening relationships, increasing school participation, or developing healthier coping skills.
Strengths-Focused
We identify and build upon the strengths, abilities, relationships, and resources each child and family already possesses to support growth and resilience.
Caregiver & Family Involvement
Children and adolescents develop within families, schools, peer groups, and communities. For this reason, treatment often extends beyond simply meeting individually with a child.
Depending on the child's age and clinical needs, parents and caregivers may participate in treatment through family sessions, parent coaching, skill development, or collaboration with the treating clinician. Caregivers may also be encouraged to help children practice new skills between sessions so that progress extends beyond the therapy office and into everyday life.
The level of caregiver involvement is individualized based on the patient's age, developmental needs, treatment goals, clinical presentation, and privacy considerations.
Treatment Approaches
Depending on the patient's needs and the expertise of the treating provider, treatment may incorporate one or more specialized approaches:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Helps children and adolescents understand connections among thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and develop practical skills for managing emotional and behavioral challenges.
Exposure and Response Prevention (EX/RP)
A specialized form of CBT used primarily to treat OCD by helping patients gradually face feared thoughts, situations, or triggers while reducing compulsive responses.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)-Informed Treatment
Helps adolescents develop skills related to emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
An evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents affected by trauma that incorporates coping skills, trauma processing, cognitive-behavioral strategies, and caregiver involvement.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
A structured approach that uses live coaching to help caregivers strengthen their relationship with their child and develop effective strategies for responding to behavioral and emotional difficulties.
Alternatives for Families: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (AF-CBT)
A family-based cognitive behavioral treatment designed to address conflict, aggression, coercive family interactions, and the effects of physical discipline or family aggression.
Play Therapy
Uses developmentally appropriate play to help children communicate experiences, express emotions, develop coping skills, and work through behavioral or emotional concerns.
Art Therapy
Uses creative expression as part of the therapeutic process to support communication, emotional expression, self-awareness, coping, and growth.
Family Therapy
Helps families understand patterns of interaction, improve communication, resolve conflict, strengthen relationships, and develop healthier ways of responding to challenges together.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
A structured therapy that can help children and adolescents process distressing or traumatic experiences and reduce their ongoing emotional impact.
Finding the Right Approach
Parents and caregivers do not need to know which type of therapy their child needs before seeking services. Our clinicians work with families to understand the child's concerns, developmental needs, strengths, environment, and treatment goals and then recommend an approach appropriate to those needs. Treatment may involve individual work with the child or adolescent, caregiver involvement, family-based treatment, or a combination of approaches.
Services Offered
The Center for Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health provides outpatient services for children, adolescents, young adults, and their families, including:
Individual Therapy
Developmentally appropriate psychotherapy for children, adolescents, and young adults experiencing emotional, behavioral, relational, or adjustment-related concerns.
Parent Guidance & Coaching
Support for parents and caregivers seeking practical strategies to understand their child's needs, respond effectively to challenging behaviors, strengthen parenting skills, and reinforce therapeutic progress at home.
Family Therapy
Treatment focused on improving communication, strengthening relationships, addressing conflict, and helping families navigate behavioral health concerns and significant transitions together.
Specialized Behavioral Treatment
Evidence-based treatment for concerns such as anxiety, OCD, ADHD-related difficulties, emotional dysregulation, behavioral challenges, and other problems affecting functioning at home, school, or in relationships.
Child & Adolescent Trauma Treatment
Developmentally appropriate trauma-focused services for children and adolescents affected by abuse, loss, violence, accidents, or other traumatic experiences, including specialized evidence-based approaches when clinically appropriate.
Play & Expressive Therapy
Play and creative approaches that allow children to communicate, develop skills, and address emotional or behavioral concerns in developmentally appropriate ways.
Caregiver-Involved Treatment
Treatment models that actively involve parents or caregivers when clinically appropriate, including TF-CBT, AF-CBT, and other family-based interventions.
In-Person & Virtual Care
Services are available in person and through telehealth based on the patient's age, clinical appropriateness, treatment needs, and provider availability.
Meet the Team
Savannah Straub, LPC
Center Consultant
Licensed Professional Counselor.
Laura Cook, LPC
Center Consultant
Licensed Professional Counselor.
Meet Our Child & Adolescent Providers
Resources & Community Engagement
Finding trustworthy information about a child's mental health can be difficult. The following resources have been selected to help parents and caregivers better understand common concerns, recognize when additional support may be helpful, and learn practical ways to support children and adolescents at home, at school, and in the community. These resources are educational and are not a substitute for individualized evaluation or treatment.
- AACAP Resources for Families: Trusted parent information from the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry on child and adolescent mental health, diagnoses, treatment, medications, and finding care.
- Child Mind Institute Family Resource Center: Comprehensive guides on anxiety, ADHD, depression, behavior, autism, learning, parenting, and technology.
- Kids Mental Health Foundation Parent & Caregiver Resources: Practical, evidence-informed guidance for supporting children's emotional wellness and recognizing when help may be needed.
- Children and Mental Health: Is This Just a Stage? (NIMH): Particularly useful for parents deciding whether a child's symptoms warrant professional evaluation.
- HealthyChildren.org (American Academy of Pediatrics): Pediatric guidance on emotional development, mental health, parenting, adolescence, and resilience.
- Understood.org: High-value support for ADHD, executive-function difficulties, dyslexia, learning differences, and school-related challenges.
- StopBullying.gov: Practical resources for parents, children, and schools addressing bullying and cyberbullying.
- Mental Health Center Kids: Accessible guidance for parents at the early stages of recognizing mental health concerns and deciding what steps to take.