Educational Therapy

&

Cognitive Training

Fostering a love of learning for a lifetime of achievement

What is educational therapy?

Educational therapy is a holistic, collaborative, multi-dimensional, student-centered clinical practice built on the bedrock of establishing a compassionate and engaging rapport between the clinician and the client. Educational therapy leverages students’ strengths while utilizing evidenced-based instructional methods, strategies, tools, and approaches to specifically address each student’s unique learning challenges and profile. Educational therapy embodies a psychodynamic approach that gets at “why” a student might be struggling and focuses on “how” to learn by considering the many complex elements that contribute to a student’s learning profile. Educational therapy aims to create systemic change in an individual’s processing skills, academic progress, and social-emotional growth by addressing and remediating barriers to a student’s ability to reach their full potential.

Educational therapy is for students who may be diagnosed with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, auditory and/or visual processing deficiencies, oral and written expressive language challenges, math disabilities, and/or difficulties with phonetic reading affecting reading fluency and comprehension. Students who present with challenges related to executive functioning skills such as sustained attention, working memory, organization, planning, time management, low self-esteem, lagging motivation, and test-taking anxiety also benefit from educational therapy.

For more information, please check out the Association of Educational Therapists.

What is cognitive training?

Cognitive training with the Processing and Cognitive Enhancement (PACE) program helps individuals with the deeper elements of processing incoming information. The PACE program is a structured and individualized program designed to strengthen the core brain skills required to grasp, remember and use information. This means that brain training improves how the brain thinks, learns, and remembers, not for a single class or academic year but for every class and in every area of life. PACE training develops attention, auditory processing, comprehension, logic and reasoning, memory, planning, processing speed, and visual processing. Students enjoy excelling in the one-to-one engaging activities and generally look forward to the excitement of expanding their strengths and moving beyond their processing comfort zones. The best part of PACE training is that the improvements are lasting!

For more information, please check out PACE Learning Skills.

Empowering

strengths-based

learning strategies

Benefits

Truly, all students can benefit from educational therapy. In particular, educational therapy benefits learners who are experiencing challenges with executive functioning, ADHD, phonemic awareness, reading fluency, comprehension, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and processing disorders. Educational therapy helps build students’ academic performance, social skills, and self-esteem.

The individualized support, compassionate inquiry, and genuine fun provided through educational therapy help build self-awareness, a growth mindset, self-confidence, and academic independence. Educational therapy sessions embolden students’ abilities to understand their learning profiles (develop metacognitive awareness) and become their own best advocates.

Educational therapy supports:

  • Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in Reading (Dyslexia)

  • Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in Math (Dyscalculia)

  • ADHD

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder

  • Anxiety, as it relates to inhibiting information processing

  • Executive functioning issues

  • Visual/auditory processing challenges

  • Expressive language issues ⁠ - written and verbal

  • Test-taking and study strategies

  • Low self-confidence, lagging motivation, academic avoidance

Testimonials

The PACE brain training program helped my daughter grow so much! She is better able to remember facts and is so much more confident.

Happy Parent

Dr. Young empathizes with students and sees them as individuals with strengths and assets. She treats students with dignity and respect, and they quickly open up to her and trust her as she coaches them through academically and personally difficult moments.

Happy Educator

Teresa’s ability to connect with students is truly superior…she possesses strong interpersonal skills and is easily understood by students and parents.

Happy Educator and Parent

“...an extraordinary educator who knows how to assess a student’s academic ability, hone in on his weaknesses, and work with the student to reach his full potential...”

Happy Educator and Parent

Frequently Asked Questions

  • We serve students of all ages. Educational therapy sessions are ideal for students in elementary school through grad school. Cognitive training is beneficial for elementary-age to adults.

  • Typical sessions vary by each student’s individual psycho-educational goals. Elementary-aged students’ remediation will occur through specific skill-building activities, games, and homework. Middle and high school remediation typically occurs when students engage in daily homework-related tasks or long-term assignments. Older students need to experience the connection of educational therapy strategies to their current work. This helps create a sense of productivity and alignment with their capabilities and the educational therapy process. Session work is continually aligned with each child’s specific goals. Each learner is unique in their approach, so session strategies and remediation are designed to be specific to the individual learner.

    Sessions run 55 minutes, and the frequency depends on the learner’s needs.

  • If your child is struggling, anxious, or avoidant about academic tasks, they are a great fit.

    We work with students with various learning profiles, including ADHD, autism, dyslexia, visual and auditory processing disorders, language-based learning disabilities, dyscalculia, anxiety, and general motivational issues.

    We support PARENTS just as much as we help students! If you struggle to understand how to support your child, notice learning gaps, have heightened anxiety, and are feeling overwhelmed and/or concerned about your child’s academic performance, educational therapy may be a great fit.

  • Yes! We help students develop support systems, executive functioning, and independent living skills to confidently navigate the many moving parts of college life. Sessions are held in-person and via Zoom.

  • If you struggle with time management, organization, productivity, remembering details, and/or general information processing, you may be an excellent fit for educational therapy or PACE training.

    Also, please check out our College Prep offering!

  • Educational therapy sessions are genuinely individualized, so no designated endpoint exists. Educational therapy is all about embuing students with roots and wings, roots to help establish robust processing and academic foundations, and wings to fly with confidence and efficacy.

    Factors determining the effectiveness of a student’s educational therapy program include: progress toward goals, consistency in attendance, openness and motivation, ability to apply learned strategies, and willingness to collaborate.

    We are fully committed to fostering each student’s successes and completion of sessions. We look forward to celebrating each student’s independence and readiness to fly!

  • No! A complete evaluation is not needed to begin sessions; however, if a student has been tested, sharing the results helps create a comprehensive picture of a student’s learning profile, which allows for the development of clear goals for intervention planning.

  • Unfortunately, educational therapy is not covered by insurance. Educational therapists do not have licensure in the state of California, and therefore, we have no insurance codes to give you. We are happy to provide you with a superbill and a letter of need if you would like to submit a claim.