We integrate mind and body, using elements of EMDR style processing, HMR, hypnotherapy, mindfulness, and cortisol reduction techniques. This approach focuses on how stress and trauma live in the nervous system, so that you can build internal calm, release tension safely, and create room for new emotional experiences.
Sessions balance deep listening with clear, honest feedback. We teach concrete tools, such as CBT and mindfulness skills, communication strategies, and pattern recognition, so that you understand how your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors connect, and you can practice new responses that fit your values and direction.
Taking care of our helpers and their families is a big part of what we belive in. Police, firefighters, FBI, physicians, surgeons, nurses, teachers and more. If you are helping others, we want to help you care for you.
Dr. April Ries is the owner of Psychological Services + Care in New Haven CT. She has extensive experience working with children and adults in a wide variety of settings including in home, emergency department, outpatient, inpatient behavioral hospital, and school settings. Dr. Ries enjoys working with a diverse group of people in private practice and leading wellness groups for many types of helping professionals (i.e., police, FBI, healthcare staff, teachers). She also has extensive experience working with neurodiverse populations and disability studies and enthusiastically supports to families at any stage where parents would like guidance in navigating options of advocating for their their child in reaching their fullest potential while being themself and being well.
Dr. Ries grew up south of Chicago and was active in her community enjoying sports, the great outdoors, and worked as a lifeguard. It was here that she discovered her love of working with children and loved teaching kids how to swim and dive. Dr. Ries initially came to Connecticut in 2008 and worked as a clinical faculty at Yale University In Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services (IICAPS). Working with diverse populations, combatting stigma of mental health, and getting mental health resources to individuals everywhere has always been important to her work. As such, Dr. Ries has worked in rural Montana opening and supporting clinics in schools and taught Psychology at Chief Dull Knife College. In 2012, Dr. Ries’ doctoral dissertation was awarded the President’s MLK Drum Major Service Award for her work on mental health stigma with inner city Chicago High School students. Also in 2012, she travelled to Lusaka, Zambia to assist in the opening of the Safe Home Trauma Clinic.
Outside of work, Dr. Ries enjoys the great outdoors, spending time with her family, playing tennis, and going to the beach anywhere in the world she can. It is Dr. Ries’ passion to help others unlock their own secret code to their mental wellness and to find ways to be present in life.