Children & Teens

Is your child too scared, sad, or upset to go to school? Symptoms of anxiety and depression can sometimes present as anger, opposition, and avoidance in children. This often times disrupts school performance, making and keeping friends, and getting along well with parents and siblings.

Approach to Therapy: Dr. Ballardo assesses children, adolescents, and teens’ development related to one’s chronological age (age according to birth date), developmental age (age related to emotional maturity), and intellectual development.  Assessment is done through the use of observations in play and talk therapy in addition to gaining information from caregivers, medical doctor(s), teachers, and other school officials with the consent of the child’s legal guardian.  An individualized treatment plan is then created that is developmentally appropriate to the child’s unique strengths and areas for growth. 

Dr. Ballardo prioritizes providing clients with age appropriate therapy which typically involves play therapy for school aged children (ages 6 to 12) and talk therapy coupled with creative art interventions for adolescents and older teens (12 to 17). She has provided psychological services to children in the following settings: inpatient psychiatric hospitalization, Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP), Intensive Outpatient Hospitalization (IOP), schools, community mental health agencies, and private practice.

Specializations: Primary issues with Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, Bulimia Nervosa, and disordered eating; Secondary issues that co-occur with eating disorders, such as: anxiety, depression, trauma, poor body image, self-harm, and thoughts of suicide.

Additional Areas of Focus: Social anxiety and isolation, academic stress, low self-esteem, perfectionism, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and other mood concerns, self-harm, thoughts of suicide, bullying, grief, body image concerns, tantrums, divorce, conflict with siblings/parents, and difficulty with making or keeping friends.

Parent Support

Are you apprehensive about disciplining your child out of fear that they will refuse to go to school, eat, or engage with others? As an adult, patience may be hard to come by these days leaving you feeling guilty for not always being the “perfect” parent, spouse, or employee. Parenting can be exceptionally difficult when your child is struggling with feelings of anger, sadness, anxiety, or self-doubt.

Parent Support Sessions:

After your child has received 4-6 weeks of treatment, parent support sessions are scheduled to aid in treatment planning and to provide effective parenting strategies that support your child’s individual needs and progress. Dr. Ballardo assists families in finding effective ways to cope with children’s misbehavior by helping parents set limits with their children through age appropriate interventions. Themes that surface in play and art are communicated with parents to strengthen the parent-child bond during these support sessions.

Dr. Ballardo has helped parents build healthy boundaries with their children of ages ranging from 5 to 17 in a number of settings: inpatient hospitalization, Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP), Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP),various community mental health agencies, and private practice. She is passionate about assisting parents and children learn to identify, tolerate, and regulate intense emotions that can interfere with parent-child relationships, school performance, peer relations, and self-esteem.

College Students

Are you finding it difficult to select a major that fits your career goals and individual strengths? Are you struggling with the academic and social challenges that have come after transitioning from high school to college?

You may be feeling so overwhelmed by the demands of your college classes, a new work schedule, or living away from home and high school friends that you find yourself struggling to feed yourself throughout the day, eat in dining halls, attend all your classes, or make new friends. It can lead you to feel lonely, anxious about the future, and not confident about who you are or what you’re wanting in life. Being a college student is a unique transition period of emerging into adulthood. In turn, there are unique challenges that come with this stage of life. 

Approach to Therapy:

Dr. Ballardo assists college students through talk and expressive art therapy to help develop life skills that increase empowerment, assertiveness, self-discovery, insight, and self-care.  As with working with adults of all ages, Dr. Ballardo enjoys assisting college students accept parts of themselves by acknowledging how life experiences may influence one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Dr. Ballardo has provided psychological services to college students in various college campuses, inpatient psychiatric hospitalization, Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP), Intensive Outpatient Hospitalization (IOP), residential treatment, community mental health agencies, and private practice.

In addition to providing therapy to college students, she has mentored first-generation and undeclared undergraduates. She currently teaches undergraduates at various colleges and enjoys using the psychology of learning and memory techniques to help enhance study strategies, decrease procrastination, and identify individual learning styles.

Specializations: Primary issues with Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, Bulimia Nervosa, and disordered eating; Secondary issues that co-occur with eating disorders, such as: anxiety, depression, trauma, poor body image, self-harm, and thoughts of suicide.

Additional Areas of Focus: Academic stress, low self-esteem, perfectionism, social anxiety, body image concerns, performance anxiety, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), self-harm, thoughts of suicide, divorce, grief, family conflict, difficulties with dating and relationships, identity confusion, and life transitions.