Dr. Mundale is a licensed clinician in Irvine, California with over 25 years of experience working with adults, adolescents and children.
Dr. Mundale is a licensed clinician in Irvine, California with over 25 years of experience working with adults, adolescents and children.
“My therapeutic approach focuses very much on the here-and-now. While events in your past certainly played some role in your present distress, the past can not be changed.”
With adult clients, my primary approach is cognitive-behavior therapy. Rather than spending endless hours figuring out what “went wrong” in your past, we look at changing current negative thoughts and behavior patterns which lead to depressed, anxious, or other unpleasant feelings. It’s generally an active approach, often with activities assigned between sessions to help facilitate the lasting change you are looking for.
The teenage years are full of emotional ups and downs, and sometimes teens need help navigating their feelings and learning to manage them appropriately. Some teens try to do this through negative behavior choices; others do “everything right” but struggle under tremendous amounts of stress and anxiety. In any case, having a trusted guide can help get adolescents through this difficult time and develop their own skills at managing their emotions.
Children can have negative emotions, too; unfortunately, it’s often more difficult for them to tell us about how they’re feeling. Negative feelings usually come out as problematic behavior. Similarly, the solution isn’t as simple as telling them what to do differently. Communication with children is uniquely challenging, and not every therapist has the skills to do it well. I have worked with children since my first year in graduate school, and continue to this day.
My graduate program emphasized child-clinical psychology and was named top program in the country by the American Psychological Association.
Sometimes the best course of action is to see the entire family together. Doing so, we can address problem behaviors and negative interaction styles that are getting in the way of good communication. With younger children, we almost always have regular family sessions, to review progress and ensure the whole family is working together to maximize success.
At this time, however, I do not engage in couples’ counseling. While anyone can call themselves a “marriage counselor,” I believe that kind of work requires specialized training that I do not have.