Child & Family Psychology
Amy Smith Slep, Ph.D.
- Understanding anxiety and behavior in young children.
- Helping parents feel confident again.
- A small practice, built for impact over volume.
I work with a small number of families at a time — children under 12 struggling with anxiety or behavior challenges, and the parents raising them. My approach is grounded in more than two decades of my own published research on what actually shifts a child’s behavior and a family’s stress, not a one-size-fits-all protocol.
How the practice can help
Practical help for the moments that feel hardest.
Every family I work with is dealing with something specific — a child who melts down over transitions, a kindergartener who can’t separate at drop-off, a ten-year-old whose anxiety has started shaping the whole household’s routines. We start with understanding your family’s specific pattern, then build a plan around it.
You’re the expert on your child, but the strategies that used to work have stopped working. We’ll figure out what’s maintaining the current pattern, and what to do differently.
From separation anxiety and school refusal to defiance and meltdowns, I work directly with you using approaches shown, in my own research, to change these patterns.
Sibling fights, mealtime battles, bedtime standoffs — the friction that wears a family down usually has a pattern underneath it. We find it and interrupt it.
The goal isn’t just calmer weeks. It’s a family that has its own tools once our work together is done.
About Dr. Slep
Research-grounded care, not guesswork.
I’ve spent my career studying what actually drives conflict and anxiety in families. My research has helped isolate what matters most to help children and parents. I co-founded and co-direct the Family Translational Research Group at NYU, where my research has focused on parent-child conflict, anxiety, and the family patterns that keep problems in place. Because of decades of research collaboration across the field, I have direct working relationships with the developers of nearly every major evidence-based treatment for child anxiety and behavior problems — that means treatment isn’t limited to any single program’s playbook; it draws on the best current evidence across all of them. As a parent myself, I know these challenges from both sides of the room.
Approach
How we’ll work together.
A focused initial consultation — We start with a conversation about what’s happening, for your child and for your family, so I can understand the specific pattern before recommending anything. I will likely ask you to complete some specific validated assessments to help me understand how to best approach the challenges you are coping with.
A plan built on evidence, not guesswork — You’ll get a concrete plan built on approaches I’ve developed and tested in my own research, tailored to your child’s and your family’s situation.
Hands-on treatment, direct from me — Because I work with a small number of families at a time, you work directly with me throughout.
Research lens
Research Lens
My clinical approach isn’t borrowed from someone else’s program. It comes directly from over two decades of my own peer-reviewed research on parent-child conflict, family conflict prevention, and children’s behavioral and emotional development.
Dysfunctional parenting
Parent-child conflict
Parenting and partner conflict
Escalation and de-escalation
Child functioning and buffering
Family violence prevention
Implementation science
Evidence-based prevention practices
Fees & Insurance
Fees & Insurance
I am an out-of-network provider and do not bill insurance directly. Payment is due at the time of each session. If you have out-of-network mental health benefits, I will provide a superbill — an itemized receipt — that you can submit to your insurance company for potential reimbursement. I’d encourage you to contact your insurance provider in advance to ask about your out-of-network benefits, deductible, and reimbursement process.
Start here
If parenting feels overwhelming, I can help.
I run a very small practice, with limited openings.
If you’d like to start a conversation about your child, send me a brief note — your child’s age and a sentence or two about what’s going on — and I’ll follow up personally.
Request a consultation
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Please note: standard email is not a secure or HIPAA-compliant method of communication. Do not include your child’s diagnosis, symptoms, or other protected health information in your initial message — a brief note with your child’s age and general reason for reaching out is all that’s needed.