Therapists Bios

Lauren Wolfe, LPC – Lead Therapist

Lauren Wolfe is honored to work as a Licensed Professional Counselor, offering support to children, adolescents and families. For more than 15 years, Lauren has been helping individuals with anxiety, social difficulties, Autism, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Learning Disabilities, Depression, Eating Disorders, trauma and grief. Lauren incorporates holistic modalities in therapy, utilizing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Play Therapy, Art Therapy, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT/Tapping), Biofeedback, Meditation, Hypnosis and Yoga. Lauren is a high level EFT/Tapping Practitioner, a modality which allows the CNS to calm down so one can process issues without feeling anxious. She is also a 200 hour Certified Yoga Teacher (RYT) and has a 30 hour Radiant Child Yoga certificate. Lauren’s knowledge in multiple therapy modalities allows her to customize therapy to best meet the needs of her clients. Besides Counseling, Lauren offers Parenting Groups and Workshops including: “Helping Your Worried Child Worry Less,” “Bully, Friend or Foe,” “Helping Your Child with Friendship,” “Raising Daughters with a Healthy Self Image”, “How to Talk to Your Children About Violence,” and “Raising Resilient Children.” Lauren’s gentle, non-judgmental manner puts children and families at ease. Her ability to connect and build trust with children results in more effective treatment. She believes wholeheartedly at providing psychoeducation around the needs and meeting children and families where they are at so they can be empowered to make change. Lauren is passionate about helping individuals and families to thrive, and feels privileged to share in the lives of her clients.

Katherine “Kate” Coffey, LCSW

Kate is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 19 years of experience in clinical, agency, and school settings. She supports individuals and families using a solution-focused, strengths-based approach, and believes that all people have the capacity to create and sustain positive change within themselves.  Her therapeutic approach is holistic, compassionate and client-centered, always meeting people where they are at.  Kate recognizes the importance of the connection between the physical body and inner mental and emotional states.  She strives to help her clients regain a positive quality of life, as well as rebuilding their strength and resiliency to face life’s challenges and stressors.

Kate has worked extensively with stress,anxiety and anxiety-related conditions, as well astrauma and abuse survivors.   Her interest in trauma-Informed therapy led her to recently complete 2 (of 3) years of Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Program, and she holds a Level 1 Certification in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.   In addition, Kate is a Certified Hypnotherapist and a Reiki Master.  In her work with individuals and families, Kate utilizes Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Play Therapy, Social Skills Training, Parenting Groups, Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Techniques, EFT and Somatic Psychotherapy.  She works with children, adolescents and adults who are dealing with issues related to Trauma/PTSD, Anxiety, ADHD, Chronic Medical Issues, Lyme, PANS/PANDAS, loss of Self-Esteem, Depression, Emotional Dysregulation, Separation/Divorce, Foster care/Adoption and Grief/Loss.

Mary Beth Cooke, M. Ed.

Learning and Behavioral Therapist

Mary Beth is a learning specialist who provides behavioral support to parents, affiliated providers, and school staff on-site at home and in school.  Mary Beth Cooke, M. Ed. makes concrete written plans for home and school and can provide on-going support if needed. She works with children of all ages and gives parents concrete behavioral tools. She is a Certified Special Education Teacher and behavioral and learning specialist who is part of our evaluation team.

Michele Bernal, LPC, CCMHC

Michele Bernal is a compassionate Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor who works with children, adolescents, and adults, as well as families and supports parenting. Michele always takes a client-centered approach to meeting the client where they are at, has a holistic mindset, and is committed to helping clients explore, set, and meet achievable goals. Michele regularly supports individuals and children with ADHD, chronic illness, including PANS/PANDAS, Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease, OCD, Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and sensory issues, Anxiety and stress, Depression, grief, gender identity and LBQT, adjustment issues, developmental lags, family conflict, and who are in emotional or behavioral crisis. Michele specializes in Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and has received training through the International OCD Foundation (ICOF) and MASS General Hospital. With OCD, she uses Exposure Therapy and more specifically Response and Prevention (ERP) to address obsessions and compulsions in children and adults. Michele fosters a positive clinical environment while helping to empower all clients to gain the tools for change.

Michele has extensive clinical experience in working with children and families. Strengthening family functioning with a focus on parent-child bonding, attachment, and interaction while promoting social and emotional resiliency and competence is the foundation to Michele’s clinical work. Michele offers parent education and support in a non-judgmental and caring manner.

Michele has experience providing home-based intensive outpatient treatment services, running parenting groups, as well as providing individual clinical support. Michele brings a positive and strength-based approach to her clinical work while incorporating holistic and research-based techniques found in Solution Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), EFT/Tapping, psychoeducation, mindfulness, meditation, Parents as Teachers theory of change, and attachment theory.

Nancy McDermott J.D.-LL.M., C.S.W.

Nancy is a child, adolescent and family therapist, as well as a neurofeedback practitioner and former attorney. She is known for her engaging personality, caring demeanor and quick wit. Nancy’s therapeutic approach is to provide her clients with support and encouragement to create more functional behavioral patterns, while building on her clients’ strengths and recognizing the mind-body connection.

Nancy utilizes a psychodynamic approach, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), solution-focused therapy, family system dynamics, attachment theory, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT or tapping), biofeedback, meditation, guided visualization, and executive function training. Nancy is also a brain health coach and assists individuals and/or parents in understanding how to maximize brain functioning in order to reduce issues or symptoms.

In the past, she has worked with abused and neglected children, adolescents facing legal action, parents with emotional and mental health issues, as well as families in crisis. Nancy has also assisted clients in negotiating the criminal and family court systems in New York City.

Nancy seeks to help her clients and their families to gain an awareness of ineffective patterns while creating a warm, collaborative, and supportive environment in which to explore past and current relationship issues, create a present experience of change and success, and envision hope for a fulfilling future. Nancy works with adults and college students. She specializes in assisting clients to address such issues as anxiety, depression, chronic illness, adjustment matters, self- acceptance, anger, trauma, and family conflict. Nancy is known for working with “failure to launch” young adults, as well as college students who struggle with anxiety or depression. She works to develop a client’s and their family’s full potential to live their best life.

Meredith Hettler, LMFT, RYT-200

Meredith is a personable and easy to connect with Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with several years of experience working with clients of all ages and stages.  Supporting children, teens and individuals with attention issues, ADHD, executive functioning challenges, Autism, Learning Disabilities, anxiety, OCD, depression, as well as family and couples work are Meredith’s specialty areas. She is a compassionate therapist who works diligently to provide hope and support to the individuals and families she serves when they need it the most.  Meredith incorporates a variety of modalities and therapeutic techniques into her therapy sessions, including biofeedback, yoga, meditation, expressive arts and play therapy, executive functioning training, and social skills support, as well as behavioral therapy.

Meredith’s training is focused on family systems theory with specific emphasis on Structural Family Therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Solution Focused Therapy.  She has a considerable background working with children of all ages and provides ample support to the family system as a whole. She has extensive training in working with children with Autism and significant behavioral needs, as well as offering parenting support to parents of children with unique or special needs.  Meredith also supports her clients with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to address negative and looping thoughts. She works with children and teens with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and uses Exposure Therapy: Response and Prevention (ERP) to help lessen and extinguish compulsions and obsessions.

Along with her clinical background, Meredith is also a certified yoga instructor.  She incorporates her yoga training with mindfulness and meditation in therapy sessions and within group work as well.  Meredith helps clients of all ages to achieve a mind-body connection, so they can move forward to release negative thoughts, limiting beliefs, self-judgment, and personal limitations and traumas.

Meredith believes that all clients have the skills and ability to achieve their goals. She supports achievement of those goals by helping them make a mind-body connection, addressing obstacles and limiting beliefs, supporting the central nervous system, and teaching coping skills so that her clients live their best lives and achieve wellness.

Jacqueline Roe, M.A.

Jackie is passionate about supporting and educating children, individuals, couples, and families. Through the mind-body-spirit connection and somatic experiencing, Jackie assists clients in making the most of the therapeutic process, helping to reduce symptoms, negative feelings and to support self-regulation.  Finding life balance and incorporating healthy living choices into one’s actions, life and relationships is something that Jackie works on with all clients.

Jackie is a therapist who pulls from her family systems training experience, as well as utilizing holistic techniques such as mindfulness, DBT, and EFT/Tapping to address issues such as anxiety, trauma, depression, chronic illness, and emotional and behavioral dysregulation.  Jackie is an experienced clinician who supports children and teens that express feelings of self-harm or exhibit other at-risk behaviors. She is a parenting specialist who has done extensive training in supporting individuals of all ages with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and executive functioning dysfunction.  Jackie empowers both children and adults by teaching them how to manage the struggles that come along with ADHD and harnessing its gifts. She teaches clients specific skills related to focus, executive functioning, self-regulation, impulse control, and organization so that they can be successful at school and home, and she shows parents how they can support those positive changes.

Her experience includes having worked with children, adolescents, families, couples, and individuals of all ages in private practices, agencies, and inpatient psychiatric hospitals.  Jackie takes a developmental and holistic approach in working with all ages and issues. Her belief is that everyone – from young children to the elderly – can learn specific skills to improve their lives.  Jackie believes that regardless of where people are on their life’s journey, there is always room for growth and change.

Diane Carlson, LCSW

Diane Carlson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with an MSW from Fordham University.  She is known for her creative approach and relatability, as well as her ability to help children and parents who are worried and feel stuck. A seasoned clinician with almost two decades of experience, Diane has worked with all kinds of children and families through in-home, outpatient, intensive outpatient and school-based services.

Diane spent several years at the therapeutic Arch Bridge School, where she became well-versed in the academic, social and emotional challenges and distress that children face on a daily basis. It was there that she saw the effectiveness of the relational model, which is a highly productive way to improve communication and empathy, using strategies to promote changes in behaviors while repairing relationships and empowering children and parents. Diane’s focus is on building social skills, coping skills, self-worth, and self-esteem, as well as on developing a stress tolerance and breaking negative thoughts and behavioral patterns.

Diane is an innovative therapist who incorporates research-based approaches, including CBT, DBT, psycho-education, mindfulness, Somatic Experiencing, expressive art therapy, and play therapy when working with children and teens. She specializes in helping those with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorders, Mood Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, OCD, PANS/PANDAS,  Lyme Disease and Trauma. Diane is skilled in meeting children and teens where they are at, no matter the area of difficulty or how layered their problems are. She helps parents understand their child’s challenges, and teaches them healthy communication patterns so they can help their children blossom.