TIC CLINIC

photo of a 10-year old boy with short blond hair adjusting his glasses and winking his left eye

We are passionate about offering specialized services to persons with tics and their families, as well as services for professionals who work with clients presenting tics or who would like to increase their professional knowledge about tics and Tourette.

Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) is a brief, 8 to 14 session therapy shown to be effective at reducing tics among children, teens and adults. CBIT focuses on making small changes in your daily life that can have a big impact on your tics, as well as on learning to create and use competing responses or "tic blockers" to effectively target your tics, one tic at a time. CBIT is appropriate for children (age 8+), teens and adults. We offer CBIT to children, teens and adults, starting at age 9.

Cognitive Psychophysiological Therapy for Tics (CoPs) is a brief, 10 to 14 session therapy shown to be effective at reducing tics among both children and adults. This approach focuses on modifying some of the thoughts, behaviors, and styles of action planning that have been shown to contribute to tic severity. We offer CoPs therapy to adults, starting at age 18.
Parental Consultation is available to parents seeking more information about tic disorders, the management of tic symptoms, and how to best support their child. Parent consultations tend to be brief, and are often completed in 1 or 2 sessions.

Psychological Evaluation regarding tics, which involves clinical interviews and observations, is intended to guide psychological treatment with established, specialized cognitive behavioral interventions for tics, and to provide recommendations for supports and accommodations at school, at work, or in home. Psychological evaluation is possible beginning at age 6.

Before beginning the evaluation, an initial 90-minute consultation will held to better understand the history of tics, to review other past and current clinical information and symptoms, to discuss the main concerns motivating the evaluation, and to discern whether a psychological evaluation is a suitable next step toward addressing these concerns.

Based on this initial consultation, if psychological evaluation is indicated, the initial consultation will be integrated into the evaluation. as we will have discussed topics that are essential to the evaluation. Two additional 90-minute sessions will be scheduled for the clinical evaluation of symptoms and for the feedback session, where we will discuss the evaluation findings and our recommendations.

If, based on the initial consultation, psychological evaluation is not indicated, we will explain our reasons for the decision, and refer you to other providers or specialties that can offer better support or more appropriate expertise.

IMPORTANT - It is critical to note that psychological evaluation involving tic symptoms is never a replacement for medical/neurological assessment. Medical/neurological evaluation of tics is absolutely necessary to rule out other possible causes of movement and vocal symptoms and to confirm the medical diagnosis. Regardless of our evaluation findings, our final report will always include a recommendation for the medical assessment of tic symptoms. While it isn't mandatory to have consulted a physician before initiating a psychological evaluation, even if your request is added to our wait list, we strongly recommend you discuss the symptoms with a physician, if you have not already done so, because the wait time for psychological evaluation can be lengthy.

Clinical supervision, consultation and training is available to professionals who are interested in learning about tics, tic disorders and related issues, about the differential diagnosis of tics, or about specialized, evidence-based psychotherapies for reducing tic severity, or who wish to consult/obtain supervision about their client or clients with tics.

Please note that the availability of these services may vary.