Clinicians at Brighter Outlook
About
Dr. Veronica Raggi
Dr. Veronica Raggi is a licensed psychologist with over 15 years of experience providing comprehensive and individualized care to youth, families and adults in the Maryland and DC metro area. She has specific expertise in the treatment of anxiety-related issues, including social and generalized anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, phobias, separation anxiety and selective mutism. She also has particular interest in treating depression, life stress, trauma, social or interpersonal challenges across the lifespan, as well as specific developmental concerns presenting in teens and young adults.
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Dr. Raggi also specializes in the treatment of Selective Mutism. She provides individual and school-based intervention and groups for this population. She is the co-director of the Kids Out Loud Summer Camp Program, a therapeutic intensive designed to increase speech and social interaction in children with Selective Mutism. She also co-developed/directed the Selective Mutism Program and Cool, Confident and Courageous Kids Camp for six years while at Alvord Baker & Associates, LLC. She has collaborated on research with Alvord Baker and the University of Maryland to examine treatment outcomes for the camp and therapeutic groups and facilitates a bi-monthly peer consultation group through the Selective Mutism Association.
Dr. Raggi has a passion for bringing increased attention and awareness to the issues of youth anxiety and the application of evidence-based approaches, including effective parenting and school-based strategies. She writes a blog called Brave Voices for Psychology Today. She has been a speaker for podcasts, interviewed by the Washington Post and other media, and has published in numerous academic journals on evidence-based approaches to child mental health treatment. Dr. Raggi is first author of Exposure Therapy for Treating Anxiety in Children and Adolescents, a comprehensive, practical resource on the “how-to” of implementing exposure-based therapy for youth with anxiety. In addition to writing and private practice, Dr. Raggi provides seminars and consultation to mental health professionals in the implementation of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). She coordinated the Continuing Education Program at Alvord Baker for five years and has served as adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park.
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She previously practiced for ten years at the highly regarded practice, Alvord, Baker, & Associates, LLC. She earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park and completed internship at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and postdoctoral training at New York University (NYU) Medical Center/ Child Study Center.
About
Dr. Rachel Kolsky
Dr. Rachel Kolsky is a licensed psychologist who is passionate about providing evidence-based mental health treatment to children, adults, and families. Throughout her training and professional experience, she has developed expertise with a range of presenting concerns including anxiety, depression, traumatic stress, relational difficulties, life transitions, and neurodevelopmental differences across the lifespan.
Dr. Kolsky integrates cognitive-behavioral and relational approaches in therapy while partnering with clients to work together towards realizing the best versions of themselves. She is a certified Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) therapist and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Within Agency Trainer through PCIT International. Dr. Kolsky also has advanced training in behavioral sleep medicine, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, social skills training, neuropsychology, health psychology, and autism. She has published research articles on parenting and psychotherapy outcomes in a variety of peer-reviewed journals and presented her research at invited talks and international conferences.
Prior to joining Brighter Outlook, Dr. Kolsky was a psychologist at Children’s National Hospital with an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and of Pediatrics at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The George Washington University before completing her clinical internship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) with a specialty in integrated behavioral health and her post-doctoral fellowship at Children’s National Hospital in Child Clinical Psychology. Dr. Kolsky has a particular interest in early childhood mental health, perinatal and postpartum psychology, and parent coaching.
A comprehensive guide for
Therapists
Written by a team of clinicians specializing in the treatment of children and adolescents, this professional guide offers a comprehensive, practical resource for implementing exposure therapy when treating children and adolescents with anxiety. Each chapter is devoted to tailoring exposure work to a specific anxiety-related condition, such as separation anxiety, phobias, panic, social anxiety, and more, using a variety of creative exposure ideas and activities.