Aquilla EdwardsPhD

This hesitation is completely normal! It is natural to feel a bit vulnerable opening up to someone you do not know and trust them with your thoughts and feelings. A vital part of my job is to provide a safe, nonjudgmental environment where you can feel secure exploring your experiences and challenges, and, through our work together, take steps toward healing and growth. Therapy offers you someone who listens to you, values your perspective, and validates your experience. It is an opportunity for support and growth while being wholly accepted.

I view therapy as a collaborative process where we work together to develop your goals and work toward them. I invite you to be honest and upfront with me and provide feedback, so that you can have the most productive experience possible. Likewise, I will be honest with you because I believe this is important in building a trusting relationship.

I believe we are all capable of leading satisfying lives and that change- whether a circumstance, mindset, or behavior-is always possible. I also believe that to achieve fulfillment, one must be willing to invest in themselves and do whatever work is necessary. As a psychologist, these beliefs translate to empowerment of my clients and encouragement of self-reflection, while providing consistent support and empathy.

I have been fortunate enough to have a range of experiences in a variety of settings, with clients in various life stages, and addressing a breadth of concerns. My training culminated in serving in a hospital and outpatient clinic within a special education school, where I was a therapist and case manager for children and adolescents who had experienced trauma, were having trouble functioning in society, and were experiencing severe distress. A common thread that I observed was a strain in family support for the clients I served, as well as a need for caregivers to be better educated about the mental health crises these youngsters were trying to cope with. This inspired me to focus on family work and parent/caregiver psychoeducation, in addition to the individual therapy work that was integral in my next role as a psychologist at an outpatient clinic serving people with developmental disabilities and their families. Here I had the opportunity to provide psychotherapy to children, adolescents, and adults, along with their families, as well as help clients and their families gain access to a wealth of services through psychological evaluations. Assessment ended up being a large component of my responsibilities at this clinic, and my passion for helping students understand their learning styles and make sense of their learning difficulties was invigorated. I began my private practice consulting within a clinic that provided psychoeducational evaluations investigating cognitive, academic, social-emotional, and attentional functioning. Here I conducted comprehensive evaluations for elementary to college-aged students with an array of concerns and worked with parents to help them understand their child’s functioning and how to move forward with the recommendations we provided. Since then, I have continued to provide therapy to adolescents, young adults, parents and families through my private practice.

103 S Greenbush Road, 2nd Fl, Suite #5, Orangeburg, 10962, NY