Why Psychology?

If you’re not familiar with Arbor Psychology Group yet, you might not know we offer services beyond mental health. After all- our name focuses on “psychology.”

In addition to mental health therapy and psychological assessments- We are proud to offer a range of services for families including occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, & feeding therapy.

Why do we do this?

We started out as a clinic providing psychological services- across the age range- for expecting- parents/infants, children, adolescents, and adults. From the beginning, we recognized that many of the families that we work with for mental health care often need other services to support their children’s development. We wanted to offer families with multiple needs a place to come with coordinated services; somewhere with providers who talk to one another to make the most effective treatment plans. Based on this desire, Arbor Psychology Group expanded to include a larger range of services- and we now offer an integrated, thorough, & efficient approach for families.

We’ve found the benefits to be enormous. First, there’s an ease and convenience for families. Caregivers can bring a child to our office and have back-to-back appointments or line up one sibling’s appointment with another’s- reducing travel and wait time. Second, providers can coordinate easily with one another. So if a child is seen by more than one provider- the therapists can use consistent language that the child can become familiar with and they can ensure they have consistent treatment goals that build on one another so that the interventions they provide are as effective as possible.

We could offer all these services in one location and still not emphasize the “psychology.” But we *do* embed psychology- within all of our services! The biggest benefit to receiving services such as OT, speech-language therapy, and feeding therapy within Arbor Psychology Group is that each provider considers their patient’s individual psychologies. Arbor Psychology Group speech-language therapists and occupational therapists practice from a psychological perspective- considering the underlying reasons for a child’s behavior.

For example, sometimes a child is having difficulty getting dressed because of fine motor skills challenges and other times it’s because of parent-child relationship struggles. For a child who presents as a picky eater- it may be because of sensory sensitivities or it could be that the child is trying to exert their autonomy. Arbor Psychology Group OT’s and SLP’s- in collaboration with our mental health team- consider the unique reasons for the way a child responds. They do not use a one size fits all approach to treatment. When our OT’s and SLP’s have questions about diagnoses such as autism, wonder about supporting a parent to discipline differently, or recognize there are psychological reasons for the child’s behavior- they can turn to our in-house team of mental health experts to provide additional support.

At Arbor Psychology Group, we don’t address symptoms in isolation. Our collaborative model tackles root causes—whether they’re sensory, developmental, relational, or psychological. The result is care that truly meets each child where they are and helps them to thrive across all areas of development. That’s the Arbor Psychology Group difference.