A Psychologist Can Help

"Promoting Positive Outcomes in Children."

Dr. O’Connor is a Toronto psychologist. She offers parents, and the helping professionals who work with them and their children, increased understanding of child problems and how to help. Discover what a child's needs and strengths are and how to help promote positive outcomes in the children you work with and care about.

How Can Dr. O'Connor Help?

When you work with Dr. O’Connor you have access to the expertise and advice of an experienced psychologist. Dr. O'Connor is a licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience working with children, adolescents and their families, and the helping professionals who work with them. She can help you, help the children you care about and work with.

When you work with Dr. O'Connor you can expect to increase your understanding of child problems and how to address them. With this understanding you can move forward to promote positive outcomes in your child, or the children and adolescents you work with.

Guiding Principles and Values

• Early & Timely Intervention: Although symptoms of serious child problems are often evident early on, other child problems can surface later. They may be the result of more recent developmental issues,or earlier concerns that require continued monitoring and updates. These can include neuropsychological issues like head injuries, as well as learning disabilities and autism. Childhood problems, whether they show up early, or at a later stage, can benefit from timely intervention and support. The earlier we intervene the greater the likelihood of preventing problems from escalating and becoming more difficult to reverse and/or deal with.

• An Assessment Is Part of the Intervention: An assessment, helps "get beneath the service" to uncover the "root of the problem" and its nature and extent. An assessment also points to the specific interventions that can help you help the children you care about and work with.

• One Size Does Not Fit All: Each child presents with problems that are unique to his or her particular circumstances. Multiple and interacting factors that differ in each child contribute to the concerns he or she exhibits.

• Understanding the problem, and its unique presentation in each child, points to the kind of interventions that are most likely to be effective for that child. Interventions tailored to the child's individual needs and circumstances, and that are based on the findings of the assessment are the best option for helping you help a child.

• Dr. O'Connor explores the meaning of child behaviors and the self-defeating strategies the child uses to cope with the challenges in his or her life. She encourages healthier coping behaviors to help move the child toward increased psychological well being and competence. She helps children break through the maladaptive defenses, or self defeating behaviors, that inhibit their potential and their ability to move forward to be more of who they were meant to be.

Dr. O’Connor’s Approach.

Dr. O'Connor, a licensed psychologist, increases understanding of child problems, including their meaning, and what is contributing to and/or maintaining them, and how to help. Through her work as a psychologist she also helps parents and children move beyond the problem and what’s wrong. She explores "what’s working” and the strengths and positives that are inherent in the problem. She encourages parents and helping professionals to harness the positives and “what works” and use these to develop practical, effective interventions to help you help the children you care about and work with.

Dr. O'Connor believes in the potential of children. She helps you build psychological well being in children and healthier coping strategies. Her services help the children and adolescents you work with move toward increased potential at home, in the school and in the community, and to be more of who they were meant to be.

Why Dr. O’Connor?

As a psychologist with extensive experience working with children and their families, Dr. O’Connor has the expertise and training to help you, help the children you care about and work with. Through her work as a licensed psychologist, she has worked with thousands of children and their families. She offers practical, effective interventions to help with the child problems that concern you. Her services are tailored to the child's individual needs and concerns.

In addition, through her training in school neuropsychology Dr. O'Connor combines a brain/behavior perspective to her work with children, adolescents and their families. This perspective increases the value of her services in promoting positive outcomes for children at school, at home and in the community.

However, it is at school where children spend most of their time, and where they lay the foundation for success and the realization of their potential in later life, including their adult years. Applying a focus on brain/behavior relationships to the child's life at school is critical to promoting positive outcomes in children, not only at school but throughout all areas of their lives, and throughout the lifespan.

Within this brain/behavior context Dr. O'Connor also incorporates attachment based theory and interventions when appropriate.

Contact Dr. O'Connor to find out more.

Outline your concerns. She will review them and recommend some next steps for addressing them.