Jennifer Sutherland, MS, EdS
Psychotherapy and Evaluations
I offer psychological evaluations for mental health and behavioral disorders for infants through late adulthood. I address issues such as ADHD, developmental delays, behavior problems, IQ testing, advanced placement, gifted programs, disability consideration, emotional support animals, etc. I now offer custodial evaluations, parental fitness evals for DCBS, or court-ordered parental coordination as well.
I provide psychotherapy for a variety of emotional and behavioral issues for all ages. I have a special interest in toddlers, preschoolers, and children with developmental, behavioral, and/or emotional problems, “gifted” adolescents, as well as women with depression and/or anxiety. I have experience helping families navigate the difficult and emotional journey through the divorce process. I appreciate being able to help parents achieve the tools to best support their children in becoming happy and successful.
I have a farm office and many animals, so it’s a much less formal setting than the typical office. There is often a cat, Max, in the office. He believes he’s my co-therapist! I have a bunny you can hold. Big and little dogs are also available. Throughout the spring and summer, I often have chicks, bottle-fed goats, and sometimes kittens. Bring your friendly pet with you or borrow one of mine during therapy!
I believe lifestyle issues are important... sleeping, eating, exercising, mindfulness meditation, friendships, support systems, etc... We'll address these issues, but also emotional and behavioral issues. I won’t let you forget the lifestyle issues because they are that important!
My theoretical orientation is generally cognitive behavioral. That means that we will look at how your thoughts affect your feelings and behaviors. Often emotional distress is related to distorted beliefs/thoughts and/or inaccurate perceptions. We will look closely at those and determine how they might be related to distressing feelings. Together, we’ll work toward you becoming the expert on how your thoughts and perceptions affect your feelings . You’ll be able to use tools (from the “tool box” we create,) to identify when your thoughts and perceptions are distorted or inaccurate and how to best re-frame or dispute them in order to relieve your emotional distress.
I believe it's important to educate you so that therapy might be short-term. My goal is to teach or “therapize” myself out of a job! Once you have the tools and the ability to practice and use the tools, the goal is to eventually discontinue therapy so you can manage issues with the tools you’ve learned and practiced. This sounds simple, but from my experience, it’s not so hard to learn the tools as it is to actually practice using them so they become second nature when really needed. We will work on that until you feel competent.
I feel strongly about the benefit of Emotional Support Animals and can see you within a week of calling for an ESA evaluation. Not everyone will qualify and I don't accept insurance for this. See the About page for more information.
Using the navigation bar at the top right corner of this page will allow you to see photos of my office space, along with photos of current and previous animals. That is also where you can find more information related to my practice and how to contact me if you have questions or would like to make an appointment. The “f” below will take you to my professional facebook page where I post articles that might be of interest to my clients. There is also a link to my Psychology Today profile.