Children


Dr. Neal is a trained child and adolescent psychologist with over 41 years of experience diagnosing and treating depression, anxiety, OCD, school refusal, ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorders, as well as issues related to divorce, family conflict and sexual abuse.

Do you have any of these concerns about your child or teenager?

  • Seem depressed or anxious
  • Especially prone to meltdowns
  • Dinner time or bedtime is a nightmare
  • Being bullied
  • Struggling in school
  • Difficulty in their friendships
  • Social media use is out of control, or they are being harassed
  • Smoking, vaping, or experimenting with substances
  • Has repetitive, self-destructive behaviors such as hair-pulling, skin picking, or cutting
  • Talks about or engages in any kind of self harm
  • Makes comments like “I wish I wasn’t here” or “nobody would care if I ran away.” 

Children will find Dr. Neal approachable, highly interactive, and humorous. He is also passionate about working with teens, and invites them to view therapy as one of most life changing experiences they can participate in. Through a respectful and engaging approach, he “earns the right to be heard” from even the most resistive teen, giving him a platform to speak wisdom and direction into the young person’s life.

Play Therapy & Counseling

Our child therapist offers play therapy, which is a unique blend of creating a safe and trusting environment for your child to engage comfortably. There are many therapeutic toys, games, and activities to choose from which invites your child to engage while our counselor interacts with your child. Many times, direct talk therapy will not work with a child because they are too young to sustain a meaningful conversation about why you brought them to us. The goal is to help your child work through the reason why you brought him/her to us. 

Neal Psychological Specialties has both a child psychologist and child counselor who specialize in these areas of child counseling:

Being in the field for over 35 years and staying on the cutting edge of new treatments has helped Dr. Neal to become a “Sherlock Holmes” for these complex cases.

If a teen is highly resistant and refuses to engage, Dr. Neal will sensitively respect the teen's decision to not engage in counseling at that time. There will be no judgment nor pressure to make your teen talk. He reaffirms that he is not a third parent, an academic dean, or policeman. In other words, he lets the teen know he is not an “enforcer” but rather a safe haven where anything can be discussed and a solution can be sought.

Sometimes, Dr. Neal will end the session early, in the hope that the teen will leave feeling respected, heard, not pressured and hopefully will come to view Dr. Neal as a person to trust and discuss what is on their mind. Many times this leads to a future session with less resistance.

Dr. Neal is committed to coordinating with all the various professionals and treatment services you’ve experienced. He can help you make sense of all past tests, assessments and reports you have already paid for, without repeating any testing. He can wade through the medical jargon and understand what needs to be done for you or your family member.

Differential Diagnosis

One of Dr. Neal’s specialties, which can only be developed over time, is called “differential diagnosis.” This is the ability to tease apart all the symptoms of a person, and artfully and scientifically name the accurate diagnosis or multiple diagnoses that a person has. Dr. Neal diagnoses accurately, the first time. He knows that many suffering people have been given multiple diagnoses, which leads to confusion. Repeatedly, Dr. Neal, has been sought out by other professionals to “break a case” for situations that are highly neurologically and psychologically complex.

Being in the field for over 35 years and staying on the cutting edge of new treatments has helped Dr. Neal to become a “Sherlock Holmes” for these complex cases. He has a strong network of highly experienced professionals he can communicate with for their sought-after opinions.

Are you ready to take the next step?

CONTACT US AND SCHEDULE YOUR FIRST APPOINTMENT TODAY.

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