Dr. Valentina is a bilingual Chicago native with a heart for people. Around 12 years of age, Dr. Valentina discovered her ability to listen and provide support to same-age peers, which led her to research fields of study that provide such care. She identified “psychology” and set off to secure her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology. In graduate school, her interest was in general psychology which allowed her to serve individuals across the age spectrum. Nevertheless, she seemed to always be assigned more child/teen cases than adults. Upon graduating in 2013, she sought board certification in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology after learning that many of her colleagues preferred adults to children because work with children typically involved the need to also work with systems – be it family, school and/or court systems.
Dr. Valentina enjoys serving on the front lines in the most trauma-informed way. With the use of gold-standard, evidenced-based treatment and testing protocols, clients leave Dr. Valentina’s office well-informed about their symptoms and its function as well as feeling heard and prepared to tackle what they would have previously described as a challenging situation.
Dr. Valentina is known for her ability to help decipher if a child or adult has anxiety, learning differences or sensory processing concerns over ADHD; and social pragmatic language disorder over autism. She is also known for her ability to de-stigmatize the need for assistance, and help clients petition their school or employer for accommodations.
Dr. Valentina is fluent in English and Spanish, and is able to conduct therapy and psychological testing in both languages.
DR. VALENTINA 