J. Oni Dakhari (she/her)

I specialize in working with children from early childhood through young adult. I have worked and trained in a variety of settings including day care, Early Intervention System, children's hospitals, and behavioral health clinics. I typically work with children across a variety of needs including anxiety, mood regulation challenges, sensory integration needs, social interaction difficulties, low-esteem, technology overuse, strained family relationships, learning challenges, and medical needs.

I utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - an evidence based treatment approach - and other evidence-based treatment strategies to teach individuals to successfully manage their anxiety. I help children who are adjusting to situations and demonstrating anxiety as result. I integrate brain-based strategies for calming the anxious mind and work with children across the anxiety spectrum including social anxiety, generalized anxiety, OCD.

While you may not know them by their formal name, Body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs), are recognizable as habits/behaviors that have gotten out of hand and that can seem very difficult to 'just stop.' Some of the more common ones can include pulling, picking, biting, or scraping one's hair, skin, or nails. I can help guide you through the treatment strategies to address these behaviors as well as the shame or stigma that unfortunately may sometimes accompany them.

What you think is important. Learning to think about your thinking - is quite a crucial skill to learn. As a CBT therapist, I help children and young adults understand ways that thinking impacts how we feel and behave. We discuss strategies to challenge unhelpful ways of thinking and learn and practice ways to generate and enhance healthy thinking patterns. Healthy thinking is an important resiliency skill and we work on facing tough situations with this valuable tool.

I truly believe there is no one size fits all to therapy. Kids don't come with manuals - perhaps for an important reason. Your child is unique and deserves an individualized approach to treatment. While the approach may be eclectic, it is still based in proven and evidence-based strategies. We will all work together collaboratively to find the most helpful treatment approaches for your child and to teach tools that can be utilized across the lifespan.

I utilize exposure therapy to help kids and young adults learn to confront their fears in helpful ways. The goal is to help reduce fear and avoidance behaviors in both the short and over the long term. Fear can be a powerful emotion resulting in very strong avoidance and escape negative behavior patterns. There are several variations of exposure therapy and together we will determine which strategy is best for your child so that they can live more anxiety free.