Colleen Hamilton, Psy.D.
Director of Clinical Training
Dr. Colleen Hamilton is a Licensed Psychologist and holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology with training focused on work with children, adolescents, and families. With Lepage Associates for over 15 years, she also serves as the Director of Clinical Training. Dr. Hamilton provides individual, family and group therapy to clients of all ages, and is known for her creativity as a therapist. She has worked with children as young as four through adults in their 80s. Dr. Hamilton has worked in a variety of settings including outpatient clinics, day treatment programs, school settings, and inpatient facilities. In addition to providing therapy, she is also experienced in conducting educational and psychological evaluations.
Areas of special interest include childhood trauma, adolescent depression, family relationships, and self-care. She works with all presenting concerns include anxiety, depression, behavior problems, academic achievement, low self-esteem, peer relationships, attention difficulties, mood disorders, trauma and abuse, self-care, and parent-child relational difficulties. Dr. Hamilton has also led groups focused on the development of social skills, coping skills, and loss and separation. She works with families to address conflict resolution, noncompliance, and communication, and often participates in educational advocacy for her clients within the schools. Children and adolescents are significantly impacted by various systems outside of their control and Dr. Hamilton works to include all systems in their treatment to achieve optimum results.
In her work with children Dr. Hamilton uses a variety of approaches including play therapy, behavior modification, and parent training and coaching, and is known for her creativity in therapy. For example, a family experiencing fights at every family meal might come in to find the office set up with a dinner table and food, to allow for direct observation and hands-on intervention by Dr. Hamilton. Her dissertation examined the use of expressive therapies in treating children. She researched the integration of play therapy, sand tray therapy, art therapy, music therapy, and body movement therapy in conjunction with more traditional forms of psychotherapy in the treatment of children, and made suggestions for applying these techniques.
Dr. Hamilton specializes in children, and has a wide variety of experience working with children and their families. Dr. Hamilton’s fun and creative spirit as a child therapist makes her uniquely skilled at engaging children in the process! She is well versed in a variety of approaches that engage children to include play therapy, sand tray therapy, art therapy, music therapy, and body movement therapy. Depending on the presenting problem, her direct work with the child may focus on lessening sadness or anxiety, developing coping skills or problem solving skills, social skill improvement, self-esteem raising, anger management / emotion regulation, or behavior modification. Concurrently she includes parent training and coaching. One area of common concern often presented is noncompliance at home or at school. Dr. Hamilton works with the family and school to develop a behavior modification plan to improve behavior. She stresses full participation from all those involved, including the child, to achieve optimal success. Dr. Hamilton also has a special interest in and extensive experience in working with traumatized children, and she worked as both a Therapist and Research Coordinator for a Child & Adolescent Traumatic Stress Program. Her trauma work with children is often done with a combination of individual therapy, family therapy, and parent sessions. Dr. Hamilton focuses on teaching the parent to support the child through their recovery while strengthening the parent-child relationship. When dealing with all childhood issues, Dr. Hamilton recognizes the importance of the family and works extensively with parents to understand how their child’s development and external stressors impact their child’s functioning. She has also conducted sibling groups to improve sibling interactions and develop conflict resolution skills. In addition to therapy, Dr. Hamilton provides educational and psychological testing for children, for AD/HD, learning disorders, and to discern the impact psychological issues such as depression or anxiety may be having on the teen’s school performance or behavior in general.
Dr. Hamilton enjoys working with adolescents to address common difficulties with mood stabilization, identity development, independence, and body image concerns. In the area of trauma, she worked as both a Therapist and Research Coordinator for a Child & Adolescent Traumatic Stress Program, and has presented papers on the impact of terrorism on children. In the area of self-care, Dr. Hamilton has researched and presented papers on using positive reinforcement to alter eating and exercise patterns in obese adolescent females.
Dr. Hamilton has a passion for working with teenagers and their families. Her background includes working with adolescents with a variety of presentations, including: behavior difficulties; social skills problems; depression; general, school, social and test anxiety; AD/HD; ASD; learning disabilities; trauma; self-image and self-esteem, identity development, and the spectrum of adolescent issues. For teens dealing with trauma, she utilizes her specialized training in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. In addition, Dr. Hamilton has worked with special needs (i.e., autism spectrum and emotional-behavioral disturbance) and at-risk teens (i.e., teens involved in delinquent behaviors). Her experience with teenagers also includes career development for older teens. In her individual therapy with adolescents, she demonstrates respect for the teen while guiding them in the development of new skills, behaviors and/or in mood regulation. Adolescence can be a hard transition for both teenagers and parents, and Dr. Hamilton can help the family navigate this time in family therapy. Dr. Hamilton utilizes various approaches such as psycho-education and improved listening and expression to help foster communication between teenagers and parents. She has assisted teens and parents in creating structure and a daily routine, teaching problem solving skills, conflict resolution skills, boundary setting, how to support a member with a mental illness, how to have a healthy argument, and how to have fun as a family. With over 15 years of experience specializing in kids and families, she has a wide array of tools to help teens and families.
In her clinical work with adults, Dr. Hamilton has experience in treating symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as problems associated with life changes, interpersonal relationships, divorce, and traumatic experiences. Her group work has focused on psychoeducation, self-esteem building, and health and wellness. She also works with adults in couple’s therapy addressing communication, decision making, and strengthening relationships. Dr. Hamilton employs a variety of strategies including cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and systemic therapy to further empower clients to make healthy and adaptive decisions in their lives with a goal of decreasing stress and improving satisfaction with self and interpersonal relationships.
Dr. Hamilton is a child specialist with in-depth experience assessing children of all ages; through direct observation and/or parent descriptions of very young children, and testing with preschool children and older, assesses children ages birth through 18. Dr. Hamilton is one of few child psychologists specialized in the birth to preschool years as well as K-12 children. She has extensive experience conducting trauma assessments, comprehensive psychological and behavioral assessments, and educational evaluations across the academic spectrum to include evaluating for LD and AD/HD as well as gifted children. Dr. Hamilton is also experienced in adult trauma assessments, and psychological and educational testing for adults.