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Treat­ment Mis­sion of the Henry Neu­rore­la­tional Cen­ter | HNC

Our treat­ment mis­sion is to pro­vide cut­ting edge psy­chother­apy treat­ment ser­vices for indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies apply­ing spe­cial­iza­tions in devel­op­men­tal psy­chol­ogy, relationship-based treat­ment, bio­log­i­cal indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences, and inter­dis­ci­pli­nary collaboration.

HNC deliv­ers advanced method­olo­gies, which are unique in South­west Florida, for chil­dren 0–5 and for indi­vid­u­als of any age with what are often mis­un­der­stood neu­rode­vel­op­ment issues: includ­ing, but not lim­ited to, issues of attach­ment, autism spec­trum, mood dis­or­ders, and in utero toxic expo­sure. The cen­ter also treats sur­vivors of trauma, those seek­ing ther­apy for per­sonal growth and help in work­ing through chal­leng­ing life events and relationships.

Pri­mary cen­ter activ­i­ties are: 1. using the Neu­rore­la­tional Frame­work to help fam­i­lies and indi­vid­u­als piece together their par­tic­u­lar issues of func­tion­ing and expe­ri­ence into an ori­ent­ing “big pic­ture” that serves as a road map for health and per­sonal devel­op­ment; 2. ther­a­peu­ti­cally engag­ing with indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies to sup­port opti­mal behav­ioral func­tion­ing, emo­tional heal­ing, pos­i­tive rela­tion­ship for­ma­tion, per­sonal empow­er­ment and validation/positive devel­op­ment of the client’s sense of mean­ing; and, 3. col­lab­o­rat­ing with inter­dis­ci­pli­nary treat­ment team mem­bers to pro­vide the most com­plete resources pos­si­ble in sup­port of the best outcome.

Picture of Sara L . Henry, MA, LMFT

Sara L . Henry, MALMFT

Mrs. Henry spe­cial­izes in assess­ing and treat­ing chil­dren, ages 0–21 who have typ­i­cal and atyp­i­cal neuro-developmental pro­files, who are suf­fer­ing from psy­cho­log­i­cal dis­tress and/or mal­adap­tive behav­ior due to a wide range of causes both bio­log­i­cal and environmental.

Cre­den­tials, Ser­vice and Training:

Mrs. Henry holds a mas­ters degree in clin­i­cal psy­chol­ogy and is licensed by the states of Florida and Cal­i­for­nia in Mar­riage and Fam­ily Ther­apy. She is rec­og­nized as an advanced clin­i­cian by the Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Coun­cil on Devel­op­men­tal and Learn­ing Dis­or­ders (icdl.com), the Pro­fec­tum Foun­da­tion (profectum.org), the Florida State Uni­ver­sity Har­ris Insti­tute for Infant Men­tal Health (cpeip.fsu.edu), and the cre­ators of the “Neu­rore­la­tional Frame­work for Infant/Child Men­tal Health, Early Inter­ven­tion and Relationship-Based Ther­a­pies” (the-nrf.com).

Mrs. Henry devel­op­ed the global assess­ment pro­to­col for the Col­lier H.U.G.S. (Health Under Guided Sys­tems) pro­gram (a partnership–sponsored by a major grant from the Naples Chil­dren & Edu­ca­tion Foun­da­tion (NCEF)–between NAMI of Col­lier County, Able Acad­emy, David Lawrence Cen­ter, Col­lier County Sheriff’s Office, Col­lier County Pub­lic Schools, Youth Haven and Col­lier Health Services).

Cur­rently Mrs. Henry serves on the board of direc­tors for the De La Salle Acad­emy and on the advi­sory board for Col­lier Child Care Resources, Inc. (CCCR).

HNC offers unique ser­vices in our geo­graph­i­cal area——particularly in areas of children’s men­tal and devel­op­men­tal health.

First, Mrs. Henry treats the rela­tional, psy­cho­log­i­cal and fam­ily sys­tems aspects of chil­dren on the Aut­sim Spec­trum and with related dis­or­ders using the “Devel­op­men­tal, Indi­vid­ual Dif­fer­ence, Relationship-based/Floortime” “(DIR/Floortime”) approach. She is the only advanced prac­ti­tioner of this proven treat­ment in Col­lier and Lee Coun­ties. Fam­i­lies with chil­dren on the Autism Spec­trum deserve to have the choice of this well-established treatment.

The sec­ond area of Mrs. Henry’s unique ser­vice in Col­lier and Lee Coun­ties is in treat­ing the psy­cho­log­i­cal impact of multi-system dis­or­ders which fea­ture sen­sory pro­cess­ing and exec­u­tive sys­tem dis­or­ders. Many chil­dren are referred for speech and occu­pa­tional ther­apy ser­vices for these dis­or­ders but go with­out proper treat­ment for the effect these per­cep­tual and action-planning dis­or­ders have on their self-esteem, per­son­al­ity for­ma­tion, mood sta­bil­ity, impulse con­trol, and abil­ity to form func­tional and sat­is­fy­ing rela­tion­ships. With­out com­pre­hen­sive treat­ment includ­ing a spe­cial­ized approach to social-emotional health of chil­dren with these dis­or­ders, the emo­tional dis­tress caused by the under­ly­ing issues can lead to more seri­ous men­tal health issues later in life. Mrs. Henry is our area’s only men­tal health provider exten­sively trained to under­stand, assess and treat the psy­cho­log­i­cal and rela­tional aspects of these com­plex dis­or­ders in children.

Third, Mrs. Henry has exten­sive train­ing and expe­ri­ence in treat­ing attach­ment dis­rup­tion, for which she sees par­ents and chil­dren together (dyadic treat­ment) in ther­apy. Often chil­dren with attach­ment dis­or­ders have co-occurring neu­ro­log­i­cal chal­lenges such Fetal Alco­hol Syn­drome. Mrs. Henry’s spe­cial­iza­tion in treat­ing chil­dren with atyp­i­cal neu­rol­ogy com­bines well with attachment-focused treat­ment. Her stud­ies in DIR/Floortime and Infant Men­tal Health and Early Inter­ven­tion make her uniquely qual­i­fied in our area to glob­ally assess and treat chil­dren for men­tal and devel­op­men­tal health chal­lenges ages 0–5.

Usu­ally, Mrs. Henry’s assess­ment and treat­ment approach is per­formed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with other pro­fes­sion­als such as edu­ca­tors, occu­pa­tional ther­a­pists, speech pathol­o­gists, phys­i­cal ther­a­pists, audi­ol­o­gists, optometrists, psy­chi­a­trists, psy­chol­o­gists, pedi­a­tri­cians, i.e., whomever is needed for the child’s progress and trusted by the parents.

If you are look­ing for a skilled and expe­ri­enced ther­a­pist to col­lab­o­rate with in your heal­ing and growth, please take this moment to call or send a mes­sage if she may be of ser­vice to you and/or your family.

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