Welcome
Thank you for taking the time to visit my website.
My name is Dr. Maddisen Espeseth and I am a licensed psychologist located in Anaheim Hills, California. I provide in-person psychotherapy services to toddlers, children, adolescents, and young adults (including fellow therapists). My subspecialties include trauma-related disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), although I often see clients struggling with other anxiety and depressive disorders as well.
I also provide in-person psychodiagnostic assessment services to child and adult clients. Presently, I offer neurodiversity affirming testing services to assist with the rule-out of autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), specific learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia), and intellectual disability. I similarly offer personality testing.
My Treatment Approach
Attachment Theory
My treatment approach is heavily informed by attachment theory. Originally developed by psychoanalyst, John Bowlby, attachment theory posits that the parent-child relationship serves as a model template for interpersonal interactions throughout the lifespan.
Play Therapy
I am a Registered Play Therapist (RPT) as well as the former president elect of the Association for Play Therapy (APT) local Orange County chapter. Play therapy is a neurodevelopmentally-attuned approach that entails the use of varying play-based, sensoriaffective interventions. The symbolic nature of play grants access to a rich surplus of intra- and interpersonal knowledge that is otherwise, inaccessible via traditional "talk therapy."
Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics
I am Phase One certified in Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT). Founded by psychiatrist and trauma specialist, Bruce Perry, NMT is a developmentally-informed approach that provides a map of client-specific treatment needs.
Sandplay
I am a Certified Sandplay Therapist (CST) and member of Sandplay Therapists of America (STA). Informed by Jungian depth psychology, sandplay is a nonverbal, non-interpretative approach that is intended to create a symbolic holding place for a client's psyche to instinctively and effectively navigate the relationship between conscious and unconscious worlds.
Internal Family Systems
I am a Certified Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapist. IFS is an attachment-based approach that proposes that we are each a complex system of various subpersonalities or "parts." Each part offers a unique wisdom to our internal systems, and dually shares relationships with other parts as well as the core "Self." By understanding and unburdening our parts of past trauma, we pave the way for a Self-led life.
Jungian Psychology
The crux of Jungian, sometimes referred to as depth or analytic, psychology is individuation. "Individuation" refers to the lifelong process of truly knowing one's full "Self." As noted, this is considered a process, not an actual endpoint, given the expansiveness of the psyche both at the individual (personal) and collective (universal) levels.
Psychodiagnostic Assessment
The intent of psychodiagnostic assessment, sometimes referred to as psychodiagnostic testing, psychological testing, or psychological assessment, is to assist with ascertaining the rationale for a client's presenting strengths and challenges. Standardized, empirically-validated objective and subjective instruments are administered in order to assess domains such as intellectual, neuropsychological, socioemotional, communicational, sensory, personality, or behavioral functioning. Data collected via these measures is holistically interpreted within the context of a client’s present functioning and past history in order to identify client-specific, neurodiversity affirming, practical recommendations as outlined in a written report provided to the client at the close of the assessment period.
At this time, I provide (solely in-person) psychodiagnostic assessment services to child and adult clients to assist with rule-out of the following diagnoses listed below. I also offer personality testing.
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Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
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Autism
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Specific Learning Disabilities (Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Dysgraphia)
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Intellectual Disability
Consultative Services and Workshops
In addition to clinical client services, I also offer on-site, off-site, and virtual consultative services for fellow therapists, agencies, institutions, groups, and practices. Consultation services are specific to the consultee's needs; however, example foci include but are not limited to supporting clinicians in addressing therapy roadblocks or client-therapist impasses, collaborative treatment planning, navigating legal and ethical concerns, offering psychoeducation regarding conceptual and clinical application of models I am trained in (attachment theory, Internal Family Systems (IFS), etc.), crisis management planning, identifying when and how to refer for psychodiagnostic testing, mentorship pertaining to private practice development or progression toward certification in subspecialties such as play therapy, and so on. I am likewise passionate about providing psychoeducative consultation services to interdisciplinary professionals (such as teachers, medical specialists, etc.).
I similarly love offering on-site, off-site, and virtual workshops in order to support a variety of communities in strengthening mental health awareness and resourcing. Workshop audiences have included schools, group practices, play therapists, medical healthcare professionals, and so on. Example workshop topics include but are not limited to psychoeducation and clinical application of attachment and relational psychoanalytic theories, child development and trauma, neurosequentially-informed treatment, IFS, play therapy approaches to specific disorders, introductions to specific play therapy models such as Theraplay, Sandplay basics, the ins and outs of psychodiagnostic testing, and so on.