Areas of Expertise
Obsessive-compulsive disorder disrupts functioning due to anxiety-provoking intrusive thoughts and behaviors or rituals meant to reduce distress. However, the relief lasts a short period of time before the intrusive thought presents itself once more. Rituals may have been helpful in the past, but now take up too much time and energy. CBT helps clients learn to move beyond their rituals/compulsions. Dr. Calbeck completed specialized training to treat clients with OCD.
Anxiety is an emotion related to the Fear family of emotions. When a person experiences fear, they are recognizing a real threat in their environment. Fear keeps people safe by reasonably pointing out dangerous situations. When a person experiences anxiety they are inappropriately appraising too many threats in their environment, or assuming that a negative outcome will happen. Dr. Calbeck uses CBT helps clients learn to distinguish between reasonable fears and unproductive anxiety.
Depressed feelings are related to loss, which can be actual (e.g., the loss of a loved-one) or ethereal (the loss of potential). When people become depressed, they are overactive in appreciating losses in their environment and/or are expecting losses too often. Dr. Calbeck uses CBT to help clients differentiate normative sadness from mistakes in thinking leading us to expect losses therefore feeling unnecessarily sad.
The goal of a psychological assessment is to clarify a behavioral or emotional diagnosis using a clinical interview, psychometric assessment (validated objective measures), and symptom inventories.
Neuropsychological testing is a combination of psychological assessment (noted above) and the evaluation of reasoning skills, memory capacity, and executive functioning (e.g., attention, novel problem solving, processing speeds, inhibition and impulse control). Results can be used to apply for academic and/or occupational accommodations.
Psychoeducational evaluations can involve neuropsychological assessment or intellectual assessment only (e.g., used in applying to the Gifted and Talented program).
My Approach
I use the most well-accepted and validated measures when performing neuropsychological, psychoeducational, and psychological assessments. An accurate diagnosis is important in treatment planning. I evaluate the whole person to help the individual move forward.
CBT is an evidence-based form of psychotherapy that helps clients become mindful of the way they talk to themselves, which allows people to change the way they are acting and feeling. We often use a negative internal voice to evaluate ourselves and the world, when a more logical and balanced voice would be more accurate and helpful. Using appraisals based on logic and reasonable thinking helps to change behavior and reduce negative emotions, which is the goal of CBT therapy.
Contact us for more information on our Miami Beach psychologist services.
300 W. 41st Street
Suite 213
Miami Beach, FL 33140