New to Grow
I am Lali Binder, LPC, a licensed therapist with over 20 years of experience supporting children, adolescents, young adults, and families. I provide trauma-informed, evidence-based therapy to help clients strengthen emotional regulation, process difficult experiences, and build healthy coping skills. Through a supportive and collaborative approach, I help individuals and families improve communication, increase resilience, and create lasting positive change in their daily lives.
In our first session together, here's what you can expect
In your first session, you can expect a safe, supportive, and welcoming space where we focus on getting to know you and understanding what brings you to therapy. We will review the therapy process, confidentiality, and any questions you may have, so you feel informed and comfortable moving forward. For children and families, the initial session often includes building rapport, gathering background information, and understanding your child’s strengths, challenges, and daily routines. I work to make children feel at ease through developmentally appropriate interaction, while also collaborating closely with caregivers to understand family dynamics and goals. For adults and young adults, the first session is a time to discuss current concerns, personal history, and how symptoms are impacting daily life. We will begin identifying goals and explore initial coping strategies that can provide support right away. Across all ages, sessions move at a pace that feels manageable and respectful. Together, we will begin creating a treatment plan tailored to your needs, focusing on practical tools, emotional growth, and meaningful progress.
The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions
What stands out about my therapeutic approach is the way I integrate evidence-based treatment with a supportive, collaborative, and individualized style of care for both adults and children. I work with adults who are seeking to better understand how their thoughts, emotions, past experiences, and patterns of behavior impact their current functioning, relationships, and sense of well-being. With adult and young adult clients, I focus on increasing insight, emotional regulation, and practical coping skills to address concerns such as anxiety, trauma, depression, stress, and life transitions. Therapy is structured yet flexible, helping clients identify unhelpful thinking patterns, process difficult experiences, and build healthier ways of responding to stress and emotions in daily life. At the same time, I bring a strong family-systems and relational lens to my work, particularly when supporting parents and caregivers. I emphasize skill-building, communication, and co-regulation strategies that lead to meaningful changes at home and in relationships. My approach is trauma-informed and goal-oriented, drawing from CBT, TF-CBT, PCIT, CPP, and ARC Grow, and is tailored to each client’s developmental level and goals. Clients often experience improvements in emotional balance, confidence, relationship functioning, and overall resilience. What truly sets my work apart is the balance of clinical expertise, practical tools, and compassionate care that supports lasting, real-world change.
The clients I'm best positioned to serve
I am best positioned to work with children, adolescents, young adults, and families who are experiencing challenges with emotion regulation, anxiety, trauma, behavioral concerns, and relationship stress. I often support children who struggle with big emotions, impulsivity, anger, transitions, or difficulties at home or school, as well as parents who feel overwhelmed and are seeking effective strategies to support their child. I am also a strong fit for adults and young adults who want to better understand how past experiences are impacting their current thoughts, emotions, and relationships, and who are motivated to build healthier coping skills and emotional balance. Clients who value a structured, evidence-based approach, caregiver involvement, and practical tools they can apply in daily life tend to benefit most from my work. Overall, I am well suited for clients who are seeking a supportive, collaborative therapist to help them strengthen resilience, improve communication, and create meaningful, lasting change.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I have extensive experience using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with both children and adults. With children, I adapt CBT to be developmentally appropriate by using play-based activities, visuals, modeling, and repetition to help them identify emotions, recognize body cues, and practice coping skills such as deep breathing, problem-solving, and impulse control, with active caregiver involvement to reinforce skills at home. With adults, I use CBT to help identify and challenge unhelpful thought patterns, increase emotional awareness, and develop effective coping and behavioral strategies to manage anxiety, depression, trauma-related symptoms, and stress. Across all ages, my approach is collaborative, individualized, and focused on building practical skills that support emotional regulation and lasting change.
Child Parent Psychotherapy
I have experience using Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) with young children and their caregivers, particularly those who have experienced trauma, attachment disruptions, or significant family stressors. CPP is a relationship-based, trauma-informed treatment that focuses on strengthening the child-caregiver relationship as the primary pathway for healing and healthy emotional development. In my practice, I use CPP to help children ages birth through early childhood who are experiencing emotional dysregulation, behavioral challenges, anxiety, trauma responses, or difficulties related to separation, loss, or changes within the family system. Treatment is grounded in understanding how stress and trauma impact the child’s developing brain, behavior, and attachment patterns, while also honoring the caregiver’s own experiences and responses. I begin with the foundational phase, which includes comprehensive assessment, building safety and trust, exploring family history, and developing a shared understanding of how past and current stressors affect the child and caregiver relationship. I provide psychoeducation to caregivers about trauma, attachment, and co-regulation, helping them recognize the meaning behind their child’s behaviors rather than viewing them as intentional misbehavior. Sessions are typically conducted jointly with the child and caregiver, using play, modeling, narration, and emotional attunement to support the child’s expression of feelings and experiences in a developmentally appropriate way. I actively support caregivers in responding with sensitivity, consistency, and emotional availability, while helping them reflect on their own reactions and emotional responses to their child’s needs. Throughout treatment, I integrate co-regulation strategies, emotion identification, and relational repair to strengthen attachment security and increase the child’s sense of safety. CPP allows me to address trauma, behavior, and emotional regulation simultaneously by supporting both the child and caregiver together, rather than in isolation. Overall, CPP is a core modality in my practice because it aligns with my family-centered approach and commitment to evidence-based, developmentally informed care that promotes lasting relational and emotional healing.
Parent-Child Interaction (PCIT)
I have extensive experience utilizing Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in my practice with young children and their caregivers. PCIT is an evidence-based, dyadic treatment model designed to strengthen the parent-child relationship while improving child emotional regulation, compliance, and behavioral functioning. I implement PCIT using both the Child-Directed Interaction (CDI) and Parent-Directed Interaction (PDI) phases. During CDI, I coach caregivers to use positive interaction skills such as labeled praise, reflective listening, and behavior description to enhance attachment, increase positive attention, and support the child’s emotional regulation. During PDI, I provide structured parent coaching to promote consistent limit-setting, effective commands, and calm, predictable discipline strategies that reduce oppositional and disruptive behaviors. Throughout treatment, I use live or in-the-moment coaching (in-home or via telehealth) to support skill acquisition and generalization. I collaborate closely with caregivers to ensure strategies are developmentally appropriate and can be consistently implemented across home and school settings. PCIT is integrated with trauma-informed and CBT-based approaches as clinically indicated, allowing me to address emotion regulation, impulse control, anxiety, and parent-child relational stress in a comprehensive, family-centered manner.
Trauma-Focused CBT
I have extensive experience using Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) to support both children and adults who have experienced trauma, including abuse, neglect, exposure to violence, loss, and other adverse or overwhelming life events. TF-CBT is an evidence-based, structured treatment model that helps individuals process traumatic experiences, reduce trauma-related symptoms, and develop healthy coping and regulation skills. In my work with children and adolescents, I adapt TF-CBT to be developmentally appropriate by integrating play-based activities, visual supports, storytelling, and creative expression. I help youth build emotional awareness, identify trauma triggers, and develop skills for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and cognitive coping. A strong emphasis is placed on strengthening the caregiver-child relationship, and I actively involve caregivers through psychoeducation, parenting support, and coaching so they can reinforce skills and provide consistent co-regulation outside of sessions. When working with adults, I use TF-CBT to help clients understand the connection between trauma, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, while safely processing traumatic memories at a pace that feels manageable. Treatment focuses on reducing trauma-related symptoms such as anxiety, hypervigilance, avoidance, intrusive thoughts, and emotional dysregulation, while building effective coping strategies, grounding skills, and healthier belief systems. Across all ages, I provide a safe, supportive, and collaborative therapeutic environment, tailoring TF-CBT interventions to each client’s developmental level, strengths, and individual needs. My approach is trauma-informed, strengths-based, and focused on helping clients regain a sense of safety, empowerment, and emotional stability.