Services
HOW WE HELP
Individual Therapy
The primary approach employed by Dr. Avny is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), but every treatment is individualized to the patient's and family's needs. CBT is action- and goal-oriented, and includes both within-session and between-session practices so that families can translate the work to their own environments.
Parents are often involved in the treatment so they can become coaches for their kids between sessions. School training and/or consultation is also provided, particularly when the impairments are primarily in the school.
Dr. Avny treats the following disorders/problems:
Separation anxiety.
Adjustment difficulties.
Individual Intensives
Individual intensives offer an alternative to weekly therapy and have been proven to be as, if not more effective in treating certain anxiety disorders. The high, concentrated dose of treatment over a short period of time allows for accrued momentum, expedited progress, and the ability to treat more severe symptoms. Parent training is also incorporated into the intensive model, and ongoing consultation is recommended for optimal results following an intensive. Dr. Avny offers individual intensives for selective mutism (SM), social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Individual intensives occur in Dr. Avny's office in Monmouth Junction, NJ, and typically last between 3 and 5 days. Embedded intensives are also offered, which involve direct intervention in the home and/or school. This model allows for the training and coaching of parents, teachers, and other school staff, as well as direct exposures in the settings where the impairments are most pronounced.
Click here if you're interested instead in the group intensive for preteens and teens with SM.
Telehealth
Telehealth has been increasingly used across all medical disciplines as technologies advance and the ability to receive medical care remotely has increased. Health providers did a remarkable job adapting to the circumstances of covid-19, allowing us to provide support, guidance, and consistency to youth and families. There is evidence that telehealth is able maintain the same standards and outcomes of in-person therapy (Khatri, 2014; Arnberg, 2014; Osenbach et al., 2013), and that the therapeutic alliance remains as strong through telehealth as in-person therapy (Stiles-Shields, Kwasny, Cai & Mohr, 2014).
Advantages of Telehealth
Allows specialty providers to access any population despite the physical distance Higher treatment adherence rate, as many of the therapeutic barriers are eliminated Provides the opportunity to do work in the home setting and more real-world situationsAllows for access to therapy services during these unprecedented times.
Telehealth with Dr. Avny
Given the nature of Dr. Avny's work, she already had years of experience in delivering telehealth. Dr. Avny is currently delivering all services via telehealth, but is expecting to begin seeing select patients in the office by early summer. She is committed to providing the highest quality of care to her patients no matter which modality is utilized.Like in person sessions, telehealth sessions incorporate live coaching and exposures.
Telehealth Platform
Dr. Avny uses Zoom, a HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform. If you are planning to begin working with Dr. Avny and do not already have Zoom downloaded on your device, you will need to either download it from the app store (if on an iPhone or iPad) or from this link if you are on a laptop. Upon initiating services, you will be emailed the ID number and instructions to access the platform.