Jenessa Rivas

Hi, I’m Jenessa. I’m a therapist, former school counselor, and former teacher who has spent much of my career supporting children, teens, young adults, and their families. I specialize in working with neurodivergent kids, teens, and young adults, particularly those with ADHD and autism. I also support young people navigating anxiety, depression, emotional or behavioral challenges, relationships, school or college, executive functioning, and growing independence.

With children and teens, I believe relationships are often an important part of both understanding the struggle and creating change. Depending on your child and family’s needs, our work may include individual therapy, parent support, parent-child sessions, or family therapy.

My approach is warm, collaborative, relational, developmentally informed, and neurodiversity-affirming. I draw from attachment-based, somatic, cognitive-behavioral, and play-based approaches while tailoring therapy to the needs of each young person and family.

I believe our struggles and behaviors make more sense when we understand what’s happening underneath them. With younger children, I incorporate play-based and Theraplay-informed approaches to help children build new ways of regulating, communicating, coping, and relating while strengthening connection and emotional safety with caregivers. With teens and young adults, therapy may focus more on self-understanding, emotions, relationships, executive functioning, practical skills, identity, and increasing independence.

Our first session is a chance for us to get to know one another and begin understanding what brings you to therapy. We’ll talk about what has been difficult, what’s important to you, your strengths, relevant experiences and history, and what you hope might be different.

If I’m meeting with a parent or family, we may also explore your child’s development, relationships, strengths, and the patterns you’ve been noticing. You don’t need to arrive with everything figured out—we’ll begin developing a shared understanding of what may be contributing to the challenges you’re experiencing and identify some initial goals for our work together.