Dr. Anderson is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified school psychologist based in New Jersey, committed to helping children, teens, and families grow and thrive. With well-over a decade of experience, she brings a blend of clinical expertise, empathy, and evidence-based care to every session.
She has supported hundreds of children and families in navigating a wide range of emotional and behavioral challenges, including anxiety, ADHD, OCD, tics, Tourette’s, selective mutism, ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder), oppositional behavior, trauma, PTSD, and depression. As a parent herself, Dr. Anderson understands the importance of trusting the care your child receives. She founded Caring Cove in hopes of creating a warm, welcoming environment where children feel safe and supported and parents feel heard, empowered, and confident in their child’s treatment.
Dr. Anderson’s approach supports clients and families in building meaningful, value-driven lives. She has extensive training in a wide range of proven therapeutic modalities, including:
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
• PCIT for Selective Mutism and Toddlers
• Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT)
• Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT)
• SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions)
• Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
• Brazelton Touchpoints
• ARC (Attachment, Regulation, and Competency) Framework
Dr. Anderson is one of few clinicians in New Jersey certified in both PCIT and PCIT-SM, serving as both a treating clinician and a trainer. [Click here to learn more about our approaches.]
Dr. Anderson brings an understanding of both child mental health and the education system, with extensive experience in public and private schools. She frequently collaborates with educators and related service providers to ensure children receive the academic, social, and emotional support they need to thrive. She is available for school consultations and provides continuing education for school staff to promote student learning and emotional development.
In addition to her work with children and adolescents, Dr. Anderson provides postpartum support for caregivers, offering compassionate, research-based care during the transition to parenthood. She also offers parent coaching for caregivers of children with anxiety and oppositional behaviors throughout life, recognizing that supporting caregivers is one of the most powerful ways to support children.
Dr. Anderson is also committed to clinical leadership and training, as well as expanding access to quality care. Before founding Caring Cove, she served as Supervising Psychologist at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, where she also provided expert testimony in child maltreatment cases. She previously directed the Foster Care Counseling Project and served as Assistant Director of the Center for Psychological Services at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP). She continues to train and mentor emerging clinicians as a Visiting Clinical Supervisor at Rutgers GSAPP and as the Clinical Director of Caring Cove, where she supervises externs and postdoctoral fellows.
Her academic contributions include peer-reviewed journal publications, book chapters, and conference presentations at both national and international levels. Her research interests focus on the impact of anxiety and trauma on school functioning, parenting children with special needs, assessing childhood trauma symptoms, and evaluating treatment outcomes in both individual and group therapy settings.
Dr. Anderson earned her BA and MA in Psychology from Marist College (Magna Cum Laude), followed by a second MA in Educational Psychology and a PsyD in School and Clinical Psychology from Kean University.
When she’s not at Caring Cove, she’s learning from her three children, who have proven to be the best teachers, constantly offering new perspectives and inspiring her to grow into the best version of herself
