Our Ann Arbor locations are offering both virtual and in-person sessions for your convenience.

Ann Arbor Services

Our Ann Arbor locations are pleased to be able to offer a variety of services. Please see below for a detailed description of our services. To begin the intake process please go to the Make An Appointment Page to complete the intake questionnaire that best matches your needs.

Assessment/Testing

Our pediatric assessments are comprehensive, multi-faceted and data based. The outcome of the assessment provides information that we use to put together a useful and practical intervention plan. All assessments are conducted from a multi-method/multi-trait approach, which focuses on identifying, understanding and targeting the challenges affecting your child, mobilizing your child’s inherent strengths, as well as identifying outside resources for coping with his/her challenges.

Our assessment approach involves the use of several different types of assessment methods, including:

  • Review of your child’s history, records and previous evaluations
  • Diagnostic clinical interview with you and your child
  • Psychological assessment procedures, including formal and informal measures
  • Assessment of relevant skill areas (e.g., adaptive behavior, intelligence, memory, academic achievement, visual and auditory skills, oral language and motor skills)
  • Assessment of social-emotional-personality functioning (e.g., temperament, identity, coping styles or defense mechanisms, self-esteem requirements, relational patterns, emotional regulation, pathogenic beliefs, developmental challenges and identifications)
  • Interviewing relevant individuals in your child’s life (e.g., teachers, other professionals)
  • Observations within the school setting, if needed

Simply put, through these different types of assessment methods we aim to perceives how your child understands and navigates the world around him, how well he copes and meets with the challenges it presents and ultimately how he can be helped to be the best version of himself possible.

What’s next after an assessment?
What are my rights if my child has an assessment?
Frequently-asked questions about psychological diagnoses

Types of Pediatric Assessments

Perinatal Therapy
The perinatal journey (from pre-pregnancy through early parenthood) involves a range of emotions for all parents from joy, anticipation, and excitement to anxiety, rage, and grief. To help you navigate this emotionally complex time, we provide Individual therapy focusing on adjustment to parenthood, Family therapy focusing on relationship discord as your family dynamic changes, and group therapy and support groups.

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Consultation
At times it may be helpful to consult with a professional to discuss a specific issue or question.  A client may choose to consult with our staff on a limited basis, without engaging in an ongoing therapeutic relationship.  Clients may choose to consult about topics such as:

  • How can I most effectively parent my child given his/her temperament?
  • Is my child’s behavior developmentally normal?
  • Would psychological assessment or treatment be helpful?

Clients can expect their consultation to include a therapist listening attentively, clarifying questions/concerns, and recommending specific, next steps that can be taken to help them move towards their goals.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically-supported treatment for young children with behavioral difficulties. It is used to treat children (ages 2-7) with concerns such as:

  • Difficulty following directions
  • Talking back to parents/teachers
  • Aggression toward parents, siblings and/or other children
  • Rude, sassy, oppositional/defiant behavior
  • Hyperactivity
  • Attachment/relationship difficulties between parent and child

PCIT is effective because of its unique approach. The therapist coaches parents how to respond to their child in the moment. In PCIT, parents learn how to motivate children to want to listen, how to give effective directions and how to follow through with appropriate consequences. During the course of treatment, the child’s behaviors should improve and the parent-child relationship will become more positive and rewarding.

Child Parent Psychotherapy
Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) is an empirically-supported, relationship-based treatment for children aged birth through five years. It is used primarily to treat:

  • Children who are experiencing post-traumatic symptoms following trauma, abuse or neglect
  • Strained parent-child relationships
  • Attachment difficulties in adoptive families

In CPP, the parent and child are brought together in activities that foster mutual pleasure and increase the child’s sense of security, safety and trust in the parent. During play-based activities, the therapist translates the meaning of the child’s behaviors for the parent. During the course of treatment, the child’s symptoms should improve and his/her developmental trajectory should return to its natural course. The parent will have an improved understanding of their child’s cognitive, physical and social/emotional development.

Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy
Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy (CBPT) is a developmental modification of CBT for children ages two and a half to six years. Like CBT, children learn new behavioral skills and learn more helpful ways of thinking about problems. In CBPT, dolls, puppets and storybooks are used to model the skills being taught. A playful approach is used throughout and children typically enjoy the process and look forward to coming to therapy. CBPT is used to treat:

  • Anxiety/phobias
  • Selective mutism
  • Encopresis
  • Difficulties with adjustment due to divorce
  • Adjustment to school
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is usually a short-term treatment (i.e., often between 12-20 sessions) that focuses on learning specific skills to reach one’s goals. In the course of treatment, clients (whether children or adults) learn how a person’s cognitions (thoughts), emotions and behaviors are connected.
Exposure Therapy: One form of cognitive-behavioral therapy is exposure and response prevention.

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Infant Mental Health

Supporting the wellbeing of infants and young children (ages 0-3) within the context of a healthy attachment relationship is key to building a foundation for healthy social, emotional, and cognitive growth. Infant Mental Health (IMH) aims to promote the development of secure relationships between infants/young children and their parents and caregivers; support the healthy physical, emotional, and cognitive development of babies; and, strengthen the capacity for each partner in the parent-infant relationship to learn and grow together.

Therapists provide relationship-focused therapy, including: Relationship-focused parent child therapy, including Infant-Parent Psychotherapy (IPP), emotional support, developmental guidance, play therapy, and advocacy/referrals to outside supports.

IMH can support parents/guardians who:

  • Feel stressed by the demands of early parenthood
  • Are experiencing mental health concerns impacting parenting, including Postpartum depression and Postpartum Anxiety
  • Have experienced trauma that makes parenting difficult
  • Want support to address concerns about their child, including concerns that their child:
    • Is fussy or difficult to soothe
    • Appears unusually quiet or uninterested in the world around them, including the parent
    • Has difficulties eating or sleeping
    • Exhibits hyperactivity, aggression, or frequent temper tantrums
    • Experiences separation anxiety
    • Has a history of childhood trauma
Insight-Oriented Therapy
Insight-oriented therapy involves a client exploring his/her present day concerns as they relate to recurring themes and relationship patterns. For example, a client may attempt to understand why he/she repeatedly engages in self-defeating behavior or is attracted to unhealthy partners.

In insight-oriented therapy, clients focus on understanding and expressing their feelings and exploring relationship issues- both past and present.

Occupational Therapy
Pediatric Occupational therapy strives to enhance a child’s independence in everyday activities through improving sensory regulation, motor skills, strength, and executive functioning skills. These activities can include anything a child is required to do or would like to do at home and in the community. For example, getting dressed, eating meals, playing with toys and others, as well as participating in community events and extracurricular activities. 

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Community Talks
The clinical staff at Arbor Psychology Group are often invited to present at local seminars, meetings/conferences, parent workshops and school staff development days on various clinical topics pertaining to mental health, learning and educational issues.

For parents and caregivers, these presentations mobilize the family environment to support better functioning, thereby relieving pressures on the child and the family. These presentations offer information about growth and development, as well as provide practical help with management.

Examples of clinical topics we have made presentations on include:

  • Resiliency
  • Parenting
  • Discipline
  • Navigating Adolescence
  • ADHD/executive function challenges
  • Working memory
  • Learning disabilities
  • Autism spectrum disorders
  • Giftedness
  • Self-esteem
  • Mood
  • Anxiety management
  • Differential diagnosis

If you are interested in having a clinical staff member from Arbor Psychology Group make a presentation at your school, organization or place of work, please contact us.

Educational Advocacy
Educational Advocacy Services help families negotiate special education (e.g., IEP and 504 Plan intervention), understand complex learning profiles and develop strength-based intervention plans. APG’s advocates bring an “insider’s perspective” as experienced classroom/special education teachers and teacher consultants.

We are often asked what advocacy entails. The answer varies depending on the individual needs of the child, though there are several common components, including:

  • Educating parents to understand what the legal rights and options for the child are
  • Interpreting the student’s learning profile, including information from the school or private assessments
  • Empowering parents to advocate for their child
  • Observing the child in the classroom
  • Discussing alternative school placements
  • Attending school meetings
  • Preparing parents for school meetings
  • Developing intervention plans
  • Assisting with IEP/504 plan development
  • Understanding the instructional needs of gifted and twice-exceptional students

Our Educational Advocacy Services are based on the following core principles:

  1. Every child has strengths and an intrinsic desire to succeed. Many children who struggle in school no longer have an identity as a learner and, as a result, fail to put forth sustained effort because they do not expect to succeed. Our strength-based advocacy services aim to build on your child’s assets and re-establish their underlying desire to succeed.
  2. Collaboration and mutual understanding with schools is critical. Advocacy does not need to be an adversarial process! At its best, it is a creative and individualized process that brings the family and school together to help the student be successful in school and in life.
  3. Children do best with a unified team behind them. In other words, don’t go it alone. Take advantage of those in the community who are able to help. Our staff believe in the importance of supporting the family during an advocacy process and are available to meet with you and/or the school to make sure your student is receiving the best educational support. We also have an extensive referral network of professionals who can assist with the care of your child.

If this seems overwhelming or daunting to do by yourself, know that you don’t have to go through the process alone. Our staff has dozens of years of experience and training, a detailed understanding of special education law and policies, and the willingness to help you navigate this territory from a point of strength and knowledge.

Couples/Marital Therapy
Marital or couples therapy is offered to support people in relationships who are seeking improved intimacy and understanding, and to those who feel “stuck” in repetitive, entrenched conflicts and may be considering separation or divorce. In marital or couples therapy, the relationship is the focus, although each partner should also expect to focus on increasing their individual self-awareness.

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Speech-Language Therapy

Speech-Language services at Arbor Psychology Group includes assessment and evaluation, generating treatment goals, and therapy for a range of concerns including Articulation Disorders, Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Developmental Delays, Expressive and Receptive Language Disorders, Fluency Disorders (Stuttering), Language-based Learning Disabilities (e.g. Dyslexia), Nonverbal Learning Disability, Phonological Disorders, Pragmatic & Social Language Disorders, Reading Comprehension, and Written Language Disorders.

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