North Star Families exists to provide access to inclusive and collaborative resources and treatment services for the overall mental and emotional health of every kind of child and family.
We believe your family deserves to thrive, and our team is here to guide you on your way.
Our North Star is the guiding force in every action and decision we make and we articulate these principles in our core values. What sets our group practice apart are our values, along with our expertise.
Meaningful relationships incorporate the full range of emotions, including the challenging, messy ones. Our ability to slow down, bring awareness to, and reflect on our hardest feelings – anger, guilt, shame, loss – creates more capacity to tolerate these feelings in ourselves, our partners and our children, which in turn creates more secure, trusting relationships.
We offer a developmental-oriented, research based approach that targets increasing the capacity to sit with these more difficult, challenging feelings – the ability to slow down, build awareness, and understand the links between emotions and their behavior. Understanding what feelings have led us to certain coping skills, and building more tolerance for these feelings gives us more flexibility to choose how we respond to a feeling, rather than having the feeling take over.
We pride ourselves on our experience, ongoing investment in training and consultation, and the range of evidence-based treatments we offer. We offer a range of treatments including evidence-based reflective play therapy, EMDR, CBT for Trauma, Child Parent Psychotherapy, Reflective Parenting Groups, EFT for couples, and psychodynamically informed talk therapy. We offer expert guidance and assessment of your family’s needs.
Our team helps you sort out and prioritize your family’s unique needs in a collaborative way. Our therapists are trained to identify the most effective treatment for your needs. We do not believe in a ‘one size fits all’ approach and we also believe that there is not one ‘right’ way to approach change, just as there is no one right way to approach parenting. When you call us, we will spend time with you before you step through our doors to see how we can help, and refer you to the best therapist for your needs, both in and outside of the practice.
All of our interactions with families are led by respectful collaboration, where we follow your lead to develop goals that are respectful and that honor your values and traditions. We believe in transparency and, above all, kindness in our communications. We also believe that the ultimate gift we can share with parents and kids is a caring, supportive relationship, founded on authenticity.
We believe that many families and communities are unfairly burdened by hate, gender bias, racism, ableism, systemic injustices and inter-generational cycles of survival strategies that make family and child wellness, indeed survival, a struggle. We strive to advocate for our families and communities of color, neurodivergence, disability, and our LGTQBA+ families, indeed any one who experiences themselves as ‘othered’. We are invested in our own, ongoing, reflective process in this area.
We believe complex needs deserve a custom approach, and we integrate different therapists or pediatric specialists to create a collaborative team as needed, working with families and children on best-fit solutions for individual needs. There is no one-size-fits-all approach here; we treat every parent and child uniquely and find the best solutions to help them thrive.
North Star Families has a strengths-based approach that focuses on understanding and supporting neurodivergent individuals, rather than treating or curing them.
To be neurodiversity-affirming is to believe that diversity and differences in the way we think, feel and behave is what makes people unique. Neurological differences are natural and should be accepted as valid and equal.
Autistic and other neurodivergent people do not require therapy just because they have a diagnosis. As with any child or adult, our ultimate goal is to support growth and development through joy, connection, and unconditional acceptance that builds confidence and leads to a positive sense of self. We do not offer therapy to change the anyone to appear neurotypical.
Our fundamental values of neurodiversity-affirming therapy at North Star include, acceptance, respect, empathy, empowerment and advocacy.
We are an Out of Network provider so we do not take insurance. However, at your request, we can provide you with monthly a Superbill to self submit to your insurance provider. If you have an Out of Network Deductible, once you pay into that predetermined amount, your insurance will provide reimbursement. Every insurance plan is different and we know it can be hard to navigate. We have a dedicated office manager, Kyle, to help you learn more about your insurance coverage. Email her at kyle@drwendydenham for more.
When you email or call us, you will first speak with our intake specialist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Janet Medrano. On this this initial connection, Janet will get to know more about your needs based on who is seeking therapy, for what, and where is the best location for regular sessions at one of our offices. It is always a good idea to read through our team members bios to see if there are any particular therapists you are drawn to. Regardless, Janet is well versed in our teams strengths and will help place you with a therapist that can best serve your needs.
We provide full disclosure about our fees before we start working together. We have a range of fees based, based on experience and licensure. Our intake specialist will answer those questions on the first call.
Yes! All of our therapists see adults and couples. Many of our adults and couples are also parents. We have therapists trained in psychodynamic therapy, EMDR, EFT for couples, Trauma-Informed CBT therapy.
We also have early childhood therapists on hand, as well as therapists for elementary age, teenagers and all the way up through adulthood. We specialize in neurodivergence, floortime, and Oaklander Model of Gesthault therapy for children processing trauma
“Dr. Wendy and Angela Bradshaw have been an integral part in creating a safe space for my child to grow and thrive”
“Example testimonial. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.”