Dr. Alicia Fenley

Hello, I'm Dr. Fenley! Taking the first step to seek out mental health services can be daunting so I wanted to applaud you for starting the process! I wanted to provide a little bit of information about me so you can get a general sense of my clinical focus and treatment style. I specialize in the treatment of anxiety disorders, OCD, ADHD, and depression and work primarily with children, adolescents, and young adults. I use a family-centered model when working with youth in which parents are strongly involved in treatment as co-collaborators and agents of change within the home setting. I utilize evidence-based approaches including Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Parent Management Training (PMT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Motivational Interviewing (MI) in a way that allows for individualized tailoring to meet your unique needs. In my work, I hope to help youth, young adults, and families make connections between emotional and behavioral patterns and learn tools to make meaningful strides towards their goals.

I seek to create an affirming and supportive therapeutic environment in which clients can feel understood and feel comfortable opening up about emotions or behaviors that may be making life harder or getting in the way of personal goals. I work to help clients understand the roots of these behaviors and experiences to increase self-awareness, self-understanding, and self-compassion. I then move into working collaboratively with clients to learn and practice skills that can reduce symptoms and most importantly, improve quality of life and overall behavioral and emotional functioning. My ultimate goal is to help the clients and families I serve to build a robust skillset of tools that they can continue to use long after therapy has ended to facilitate continued mental well-being.

The first session or two will involve a focus on diagnostic assessment. The assessment involves me asking a series of targeted questions to help me better understand your reasons for starting therapy and to identify which diagnosis(es) might best describe the constellation of symptoms reported. As part of the assessment, I will also ask you to complete some questionnaires which help improve diagnostic clarity. Once all this information has been gathered, I will be able to make diagnostic determinations and provide feedback in a subsequent session. If all parties wish to continue with treatment following this feedback, I work collaboratively with clients to develop a treatment plan that feels aligned with their goals and values. Therapy sessions will be guided by this treatment plan and will include interventions that target the identified treatment goals. I conduct treatment progress check-ins along the way to assess how things are going and whether modifications might be needed to the treatment plan. I strive to make treatment feel collaborative, empowering, and hopeful and work alongside clients and families to help them make tangible strides towards their goals.