adolescent therapist and clinical consultant in San Francisco, CA
IT’S OKAY TO ASK FOR HELP.
dr. chelsea taber-cory, dsw, lcsw, ppsc
You're here because something has shifted with your daughter, and the responses that worked before no longer work.
You're tired of feeling like every conversation either misses the mark or makes things worse. Of trying to read her mood without setting her off. Of carrying the weight of worry that nobody else seems to see. You've been working at this by having the conversations, seeking advice, second-guessing yourself, and watching for signs you don't quite know how to read.
Because you know that what your daughter is navigating is real, and that the support she needs is more than what any one deeply attentive person can provide alone. You know that adolescents thrive when at least one adult outside the family is paying close attention to them, and your instinct that something needs attention is worth trusting.
You’re in the right spot.
How I work
At the core of my approach to therapy is a belief that the relationships that sustain adolescents through hard years are the ones built on real attunement.
What Attunement Looks Like Clinically
Attunement is paying close attention to what an adolescent is saying and what she isn't. It's tracking patterns she may not yet see in herself. It's asking the questions other adults haven't thought to ask. It's holding what she shares with seriousness, without rushing to fix or interpret too quickly. The skill is harder than it sounds, and it's what makes the difference between therapy that helps and therapy that doesn't.
Why This Matters With Adolescents Specifically
Adolescents are unusually attuned to whether the adults around them are actually paying attention to them. They sense quickly when an adult is acting concerned rather than feeling it, answering in a predetermined way rather than truly listening to her, or asking questions without truly hearing what she is saying. The therapeutic relationship lives or dies on this perception. An adolescent who senses real attunement will eventually share what's actually happening for her. An adolescent who senses something performative will give surface answers indefinitely.
What This Produces Over Time
When the attuned relationship is sustained, your daughter starts to develop what she didn't have before: a clearer language for her own experience, greater flexibility in handling difficult moments, and greater capacity to name what she's feeling before it becomes a crisis. The change is gradual and usually shows up in small ways first: a slightly different reaction to a friend conflict, a comment that suggests new self-understanding, a willingness to bring you something hard before it becomes overwhelming. Over months, her progress may even surprise you, as you start to notice you are worrying less about her mental health or you are feeling a better connection to her than before.
HEre’s what I believe about therapy:
What your daughter is going through deserves to be taken seriously.
Adolescent distress is often dismissed as "teenage drama" or "she'll grow out of it." Sometimes that's true. Often it isn't. Holding space for her distress matters.
Real attunement is what changes things, not the “perfect technique.”
The therapeutic relationship matters more than the specific technique. With adolescents, particularly, attunement is the foundation required before applying any particular therapeutic theory.
Parents are essential. They aren't replaced by a therapist; they're supported by the process.
Therapy works best when it complements parental care rather than competing with it. That's why parent consultation is a core part of how I practice.
What Almost a Decade of School-Based Practice Taught Me
I came to private practice through schools, not from them. For almost a decade before opening The Attuned Practice, I worked as a school-based clinical social worker across the Bay Area — at Palo Alto Unified School District, Aspire Public Schools, KIPP Bay Area, and Downtown College Preparatory. The clinical work I do now is shaped, in fundamental ways, by what these experiences taught me.
What Schools Reveal That Offices Don't
In a private practice office, you see clients for 50 minutes a week. They arrive, they share what they choose to share, and they leave. In schools, you see students throughout the day at lunch, in classes, in hallways, with friends, in family meetings, and at IEPs. You watch them in different contexts, with different people, in different moods. You see who they are when they're not in your office, and you also gain consistent feedback from teachers and staff on how they function in classrooms when you are not there.
This perspective changed how I think about adolescent therapy. The version of a girl that shows up for a 50-minute session is one slice of who she actually is. Understanding her requires holding more than that slice. Working with adolescents in schools solidified my commitment to working with the whole child and increased my skepticism of clinical conclusions that don't account for the totality of their lived experiences.
What I Learned About Caring Adults
My doctoral research at Tulane University examined how caring adults in school settings support adolescent development. The research confirmed what years of school-based practice had already shown me: adolescents need adults who make them feel seen, heard, and cared for. The clinical literature calls this attunement. In schools, you learn quickly that this skill is foundational to meaningful adolescent engagement.
What I saw repeatedly was that the students who navigated their challenging years most successfully usually had at least one adult, a teacher, a counselor, a coach, or a parent who was genuinely attuned to them. Not the most popular or highest-achieving student, the student who had an adult attuned to her. This pattern shapes how I think about therapy now: my role isn't to apply techniques to your daughter's experience. My role is to be the kind of attuned therapist that she needs, and to use that relationship as the foundation for the work.
What Inspired My Move to Private Practice
The work I most wanted to do, sustained, substantive, attuned engagement with adolescent girls, wasn't always possible in school settings. School schedules, caseload sizes, and structural constraints meant I could often offer only fragments of what students needed. Private practice gives me space to do the work fully: to take the time required for relationships to develop, to engage with families in the ways that serve clinical goals, to think carefully about what each adolescent specifically needs rather than what the system can accommodate.
But I didn't leave school-based practice because I stopped caring about it. School services remain a core part of my practice. I now consult with schools, provide professional development, and support school mental health teams, sustaining my commitment to the power of mental health care access in schools for many students in California.
I specialize in adolescent girls because the developmental research is clear that this population is in a genuine crisis right now.
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I’m trained in a variety of therapy methods, allowing me to tailor my approach to your daughter’s unique needs:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Solution Focused Brief Therapy
Cue Centered Therapy
Mindfulness
Motivational Interviewing
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Doctor of Social Work (DSW), Tulane University
Master of Social Work (MSW), The Ohio State University
Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies, The Ohio State University
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), California #127869
Pupil Personnel Services Credential (PPSC), California
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Cue Centered Therapy Training, Stanford University
Certified Motivational Interviewing Practitioner, University of Massachusetts
Ample + RootED Foundations: Eating Disorder Training, Ample + RootED
Wellness, SEL, and Yoga Teacher Certification, Breathe for Change
Licensed ROX Facilitator, Ruling Our eXperiences
Where to go from here.
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