Services Provided
Overview
I
am Dr.
Ana Sobel, a licensed psychologist and member of Capital Psychological
Associates, Albany NY. My doctoral degree is in Clinical
Psychology. I work
with a variety of clients including adults, children, and adolescents.
The following sections should help you learn more about the
psychological
activities I perform and my approach to therapy and assessment.
Individual
Therapy
Couples
Therapy
When
working
with couples, I first strive to gain an understanding of whether each
member of the couple is interested in improving the relationship,
ending the
relationship, or is uncertain and wants to make such a decision during
the
course of treatment. Once the motivations are clear, couples
therapy
usually involves helping each of the significant others to understand
each
other’s wants and needs and specific ways in which these wants and
needs can
be fulfilled. Alternatively, when barriers exist that make it
difficult
to fulfill each member’s desires, these barriers can be explored in
greater depth so that an appropriate action can
take
place. For the majority of couples’ therapy sessions, I meet with
both members of the couple together. I also meet with each of the
members
individually at times when such sessions would maximize the
effectiveness of
treatment.
Psychological
Testing
I
perform
psychological assessments in addition to conducting therapy. When
assessing
clients, I strive to gain a broad understanding of the factors that may
be
contributing to the behaviors and feelings of interest. Some
examples of
when psychological assessment would be used include leaning why someone
may be
having difficulty in school, problems forming relationships, or
feelings of
anxiety and sadness. In addition, testing can elucidate an
individual’s strengths and weaknesses in such areas as memory and other
cognitive processes. I put much emphasis
on the feedback session, so that clients can understand why the
different tests
were performed, what we learned from them, and practical steps that can
be
taken given the assessment findings.