ANDREA FRANCIS, Ph.D., LPC, CPCS

• Therapy for Children, Adolescents, Adults, Parents, Families and Couples

• Stress and Anxiety, Depression, Grief, Trauma, Certified Gifted Counselor, School Performance, Self injury, Premarital and Marriage Counseling, Spiritual Discernment

Dr. Andrea Francis is a board-certified therapist who specializes in child and adolescent psychology. She is certified in school counseling for grades K-12, Gifted Education and Positive Psychology Interventions. Andrea has a range of educational experiences with a Bachelors in English Literature and Social Sciences from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica; a Master of Arts and a Master of Education in Psychology and Education from Columbia University; and a Doctorate in Counseling – specializing in adolescents from Walden University. Andrea has over 20 years experience as a school counselor and as a psychotherapist. She has vast experience working with children and adolescents, parents and school personnel. Andrea has presented at conferences and workshops for mental health professionals, school personnel and parents both in the United States and in the Caribbean. She is currently writing a book about how parental abandonment negatively affects children, soon to be published by Bloomsbury.

Andrea’s approach to psychotherapy is grounded in positive psychology. She believes that although we face challenges, with support we can find and use our strengths to overcome emotional pain, be healed, be reconciled and thrive. In addition to positive psychology interventions, she believes in the power of spirituality, hope therapy and family systems therapy and uses genograms to identify family histories that create generational patterns of behaviors and expectations. She uses story telling – from our ancestral dreaming and stories; and from personal narratives to create solutions. Andrea believes that although we cannot change the past, we can change the narrative for our lives and that we have the amazing potential to create new chapters by changing our unhealthy patterns of behavior and thinking. With help, we can heal and experience well-being. We have the power to “flip the script.”

SERVICES

School Counseling Specialty

Andrea is an expert in fostering positive behaviors in children and adolescents with personal and school related concerns such as – under achievement, over achievement, poor social skills, lack of sense of belonging, hopelessness, search for identity, bullying, undue influence of social media, suicide ideation and self injury including cutting and trichotillomania. She is uniquely knowledgeable about the school setting, and partners with parents to help their children overcome barriers to school and personal success. Andrea also works with children who are grieving – suffering from parental abandonment, divorce or separation, and other losses. In addition, as a certified counselor for the gifted, she has worked for many years with gifted children and their families to empower students to manage stressors in school such as their drive for perfectionism, fitting in and their search for meaning.

TRAUMA

Andrea uses positive psychology to aide in healing from suffering caused by trauma. Anxiety, stress, and depression are some of the debilitating consequences of trauma that interfere with our ability to thrive and to experience well being. Andrea uses positive psychology’s strength based interventions to promote healing from traumatic events.

INTER-GENERATIONAL TRAUMA

Inter-generational trauma legacies are those behaviors and responses to trauma that are passed down from generation to generation. Some are powerful behaviors and coping mechanisms that ensure survival. But often the trauma legacy perpetuates maladaptive strategies. The descendants of the survivors of slavery for example, may suffer from Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Andrea understands these trauma legacies and provides interventions that heal. Because of historical unresolved grief, the descendants of formerly enslaved people still experience post- traumatic stress. She works with men and women of the African diaspora who struggle to understand the consequences of ancestral trauma and the legacy of trauma amnesia/memory in their lives. Andrea journeys with clients as they work to resolve anger, rage, anxiety, panic attacks, inability to attach, deep fears, startling, hyper-vigilance and other manifestations of ancestral trauma that prevent thriving and living a joyful life. Andrea also works with women who suffer from stress-related alopecia.