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Services for Children and Families

Assessment and Treatment
Nothing is more difficult than watching your child struggle and feeling like you don’t know how to help. The diverse team of child-focused psychologists at NSSAC is dedicated to understanding the difficulties children and families face and to teaching them how to overcome these challenges. Our goal is to help your child thrive at home, school, and in the community and to be happier with themselves and their relationships.  We have the expertise to assess and treat a wide range of problems, including:

       ●  General life stress, anxiety, and worries
       ●  Adjustment to illness, separation, or divorce
       ●  Family conflict
       ●  Social difficulties or withdrawal
       ●  Anxiety Disorders
             o  Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
             o  Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
             o  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
             o  Separation Anxiety Disorder
             o  Specific Phobias
             o  Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

       ●  School refusal or avoidance
       ●  Depression
       ●  Selective Mutism
       ●  Sleep problems
       ●  Tourette's Disorder
       ●  Habit problems such as Trichotillomania (hair pulling), nail biting, and skin picking
       ●  Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
       ●  Behaviour problems such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and excessive anger

We teach specific, practical coping skills to children and provide parents or caregivers with personalized, concrete plans for how to best support and assist their children. We use techniques and strategies that have been shown to be effective by both scientific research and clinical practice, most notably:

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – CBT is considered to be the most effective form of treatment for many childhood problems, and it is the primary approach used by our team at NSSAC.
●  Parent Training/Support – Parents are an integral part of the child treatment process at our clinic. As we are helping your children, we are working with you to ensure that the gains they are making are maintained at home. We also want to give you the skills to support your child in the very important time in between office visits.

Psychoeducational Assessment
One of the strengths of our child team is their expertise in conducting a very specialized type of assessment known as a "psychoeducational assessment". Psychoeducational assessments have a variety of different purposes. At NSSAC, we aim to:
      ●  Discover and describe your child's strengths and challenges
      ●  Identify or diagnose
           o Learning difficulties, disabilities, and disorders
           o Intellectual delays
           o ADHD
           o Giftedness
      ●  Understand how these strengths and challenges impact different facets of their life
      ●  Make recommendations to help children at home and school
      ●  Support the transition into middle school or high school
For more information about psychoeducational assessments watch the video below or visit www.psychoed.ca.

The Children and Families Services Team
Dr. Dagmar Bernstein, R.Psych.
Dr. Lauren Campbell, R.Psych.
Dr. Kimberley Da Silva, R.Psych.
Dr. Martin Davidson, R.Psych.
Dr. Mazen Elchami, R.Psych.
Dr. Sarah Greer, R.Psych.
Dr. Ivana Macar, R.Psych.
Dr. Lindsay Mathieson, R.Psych.
Dr. Sarah Newth, R.Psych.
Dr. Michael Papsdorf, R.Psych.
Dr. Kirsten Quistberg, Therapist