Dr. Valerie Scelsa is a clinical psychologist who specializes in evaluating and treating anxiety disorders, OCD, ADHD, and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) in children, adolescents, and young adults. She also works with autistic young people and treats co-occurring behavioral difficulties. Because lasting change often involves the whole family, she pairs individual treatment with parent coaching. Her style is warm, supportive, and encouraging, and she aims to reduce her clients' fears while giving families a shared plan for the long term.
For young people with OCD, phobias, and significant anxiety, she uses exposure and response prevention (ERP), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). She treats ARFID with cognitive behavioral therapy for ARFID (CBT-AR). For parents of anxious or defiant children, she teaches Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) and Parent Management Training (PMT). Both approaches help families reduce accommodation, which is when parents adjust their routines to spare a child distress, and support better emotional regulation.
Dr. Scelsa earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Miami University, with training in hospitals, schools, and community mental health centers. She completed her postdoctoral residency at Westchester Anxiety Treatment Psychological Services, where she deepened her work with OCD, anxiety, ADHD, and disruptive behavior. She also treats depression, trauma-related disorders, and body-focused repetitive behaviors such as trichotillomania.