Types of clients: Children, teens, adults, families, couples.

Treatment Specialties: Maureen works with individuals who are facing problems in daily living or suffering from depression, anxiety, trauma, or history of sexual or physical abuse. Some clients are distressed by unexpected troubles in their lives. Others are struggling with severe mental health problems or long-standing negative patterns of thinking, feeling, and interacting.  Children and teens often need help with resolving emotional distress but have additional self-regulation problems such as impulsivity, difficulty with focus and attention, poor problem-solving skills, aggression, and immature social skills. Maureen has a special interest in working with children and families, including non-traditional and adoptive families. Some types of families require a great deal of structure in order to make progress. Others utilize therapy to improve communication and process difficult emotional situations.

Testing and Evaluation: Maureen does psychological testing and clinical evaluations to help develop appropriate intervention strategies for children, teens and adults who have a complicated profile.  The goal of testing is to answer specific questions about the person, so she doesn’t rely on a particular battery of tests.  Sometimes the testing focuses on cognitive processing such as neuropsychological issues, attention, memory, cognitive abilities, and problem-solving style.  Other times, testing focuses on the personality factors that contribute to a problem such as temperament, emotional processing style or disordered thinking related to personality disorders.  Each assessment is tailored to the client’s needs.

Training/Experience: B.A.in Neuroscience and PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Internship at Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, WI; intensive in-home family-based treatment experience through Home and Community Treatment program. Maureen has published several research articles on the psychobiology of temperament, anxiety and depression, and was the recipient of an NIMH Research award.

Techniques: Cognitive restructuring; solutions-focused therapy; communication/relationship work; interpersonal techniques; problem solving; child centered play therapy; and behavioral interventions. Parent training includes "levels of discipline," "turn-around time" and "feelings talks" to help children develop emotional competence and self control.