Psychological Services

​​Psychological Assessment Services

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Dr. Gillespie has built a strong reputation for the depth and scope of her assessment practice, across developmental, learning and mental health domains.  Psychological assessments evaluate a child or adolescent's current functioning across social-emotional, family, behavioural, cognitive and academic domains.

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Psychological assessments may include a psycho-educational component, and/or a developmental component to understand a child or teen's developmental, academic, social-emotional, relational and/or behavioural functioning at home, school and with peers.

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An assessment may involve evaluating the appropriateness of a diagnosis, if there are concerns related to Learning Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), developmental delay, anxiety, mood and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Psycho-Educational Assessments

Psycho-educational assessments focus specifically on how a child learns, their cognitive and academic strengths and weaknesses, and provides recommendations for individualized support at school and home. A psycho-educational assessment involves evaluation of problem-solving, processing of information, memory, attention and executive-functioning, academic skills, as well as social-emotional and behavioural functioning.  

​​​​(Age range: 6-18)

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Developmental Assessments

Developmental assessments involve comprehensive psychological assessment of a child’s verbal and visual reasoning skills, adaptive skills, language development, areas of interest, social communication and behaviour. A developmental assessment may be appropriate when there are concerns about a child/teen's current behaviour, coping and adaptability across settings, their play and social  skills, as well as their language and communication. Dr. Gillespie has certification in the use of both the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI-R). 

(Age range: 2-18)

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Psychotherapy

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Working from an evidence-based, developmental perspective, Dr. Gillespie provides psychotherapy services that integrate a number of therapeutic modalities, including Attachment-Based therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), Dialetical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and SPACE Treatment. Dr. Gillespie has additional certification in Children's Grief & Bereavement and SPACE Treatment.

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At the outset of therapy, parents are seen for an initial parent intake consultation. Teens are encouraged to participate in this initial session as well. From there, Dr. Gillespie will make recommendations about next steps, which may include:

• Further Assessment (see below)

• Continued parent consultation services

• Parent-supported individualized treatment for the child/teen

• Individual therapy for the child/teen

• Family therapy

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Dr. Gillespie does not provide individual therapy to adults. 

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