TRACI GAVILA, PSY. D.

 

As a licensed psychologist, I specialize in working with adults, adolescents and children experiencing anxiety, depression and relationship problems. I strive to make the therapeutic process collaborative and focus on individual, unique goals. The client and I work together on understanding their challenges more deeply by exploring thoughts and feelings and how they lead to certain behaviors and ways of coping.  With adults, I also explore their family history and relationships to help one understand how these coping mechanisms developed and have been maintained over the years.  As insight into challenges deepen, we can work together on incorporating some new ways of coping to deal with social and emotional problems differently and in ways that work better in current moments.

 

I've always been interested in learning about various experiences and helping others. Prior to my career as a psychologist, I lived abroad, dedicating time to work with children, adults and families as a teacher and community health volunteer. Throughout my work, I also experienced some struggles adapting to uncomfortable and challenging situations.  These experiences include living and working in a country with different cultural norms and having to communicate in a language that was very new to me.  These experiences honed my ability to empathize with those who feel misunderstood and alone. Along with my expertise and doctorate in psychology, I now use these skills to help others adapt and thrive.

Throughout my career, I've worked with adults, children and adolescents, both in clinical and school settings. During my work as a school psychologist, I engaged with school professionals and advocated for children’s social and emotional needs. I worked with children with developmental disabilities and provided social and executive functioning skills training. I also have training in providing support to parents on parenting strategies and conducting family therapy sessions.  These experiences, along with being a parent myself, have also been useful in my work with adult clients who are parents and struggling with family relationships. I can understand some of these struggles from experience and have some knowledge of child development and parenting dilemmas. 

I graduated from the APA-Accredited Clinical-School Psychology doctoral program of Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University and completed an internship in adolescent and early childhood psychotherapy at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. I have sought additional training in working with adults and utilize psychodynamic and relational techniques.  I am also informed in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS).

 

Thanks for visiting my site and I look forward to speaking with you.