"As someone who has worked with children for over 17 years in a variety of settings and now have become a mother more recently I have a well rounded perspective of the struggles that face our children and caregivers in today's world."
Heather Alexandre is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who works with children, adolescents, and adults to resolve challenges related to anxiety, depression, relationships, grief and loss, and school/work adjustment. For the last 15 years, she worked with chronically ill children on an inpatient unit. In addition, she has worked in a preschool setting, tutored children, and led small community-based child development classes. Heather has also run parenting support groups and supported new mothers during postpartum. She likes to work with children and families to help them overcome and appreciate their daily and life-changing struggles while providing them with the tools to handle future challenges successfully.
Heather offers a fun, playful, collaborative, empathic environment and an integrative and holistic approach that combines aspects of play, mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral, strength-based, and psychodynamic theories to help you and/or your child understand and change nonproductive thoughts and behaviors, expand emotional awareness, improve relationships, build self-confidence, and face the obstacles that are getting in the way of living a happy and healthy life.
"I believe it is imperative to involve the parents and/or caregiver when working with children and adolescents," says Heather. "I will use a collaborative approach looking at the bio-psychosocial and spiritual model to better understand the child and family. I will involve the caregivers in treatment to support the child's strengths and hope to help caregivers better understand challenges the child is facing, and work on strategies together to overcome their struggles."
"As a mother, a former hospital employee, a former educator, and a clinical social worker, I empathize with you and truly recognize the hardships we are all working through and celebrate the resilience we all have shown," says Heather. "It is vital that we all check in with ourselves and provide ourselves with love, grace, and gratitude. The best way to better care for you and your family is to work on straggling your mental health. The work you put in will reward you, I want to help you remember that your mental health is a priority, your inner peace is essential and your self-care is a necessity. You and your child are stronger than you know."