Lauren Blumenthal is a New York State Licensed Master Social Worker and holds her limited permit as a Licensed Behavioral Analyst. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology and completed her Master’s Degree at Hunter College School of Social Work specializing in Family, Youth and Children services. She further received her graduate degree in Applied Behavioral Analysis at St. Joseph’s College of New York. Lauren is a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and is a certified School Social Worker. Lauren specializes in working with young children and their families, and is formally trained in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). Lauren’s passion is working with special needs children and their families. Lauren has spent the last 7 years working in clinic and home settings providing 1:1 and group ABA therapy for a variety of children as well as creating programming and behavior plans while also supervising other therapists and implementing parent training and support. She believes in evidence-based practice in building positive social interactions and specializes in helping children gain confidence and self-esteem in order to achieve their maximum potential. Lauren has experience addressing behavioral and developmental challenges and facilitates appropriate social and communication skills by providing children with ASD with the ability to converse, share and play with others. Lauren has experience designing and implementing social skill group curriculum tailored to the individual needs of each child and training caregivers with carrying over social skill strategies across settings. Lauren also utilizes her background in Social Work by meeting children where they are, has a genuine appreciation of the uniqueness of each child, and utilizes environmental factors to promote overall positive achievement in each child. Lauren also connects parents to community resources and programs to ensure their child is receiving the best and utmost treatment and services. In addition to being formally trained in PCIT, Lauren is trained and certified as a CBT Psychotherapist specializing in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of anxiety disorders, depression, and coping with challenging life effects in children, adolescence, and adults. Using the integration of cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness, she believes successful therapy is achieved in the context of an accepting and supportive relationship. She uses a variety of interventions to help clients identify patterns of behavior and assumptions and how those patterns fit into the lives that they want to be leading. It is in the spirit of this collaborative approach that she coaches her clients through an effective process of change, addressing problems and symptoms so that clients can achieve meaning and value in their lives. Lauren is also educated and skilled in Parent Management Training (PMT) specializing with children with ODD, social disorder, ADHD, and anxiety disorders. Adjunct to treatment involves educating and coaching parents to change their child’s inappropriate behaviors at home or in school and to replace with positive interactions with peers, parents, and authority figures while using principles of social learning theory, operant conditioning, and behavior modification. In order to accomplish this goal, Lauren focuses on enhancing parenting skills and coaches parents in applying such strategies as rewarding positive behavior, and responding to negative behavior by removing rewards or enforcing undesirable consequences.
