Team

Dr. Paul Donahue  is the founder and director of Child Development Associates, and a leading consultant and expert in the field of parenting and child and adolescent mental health. He is the author of Parenting Without Fear: Letting Go of Worry and Focusing on What Really Matters and co-author of Mental Health Consultation in Early Childhood. Dr. Donahue is an accomplished speaker, lecturing to parents, teachers and mental health professionals about managing stress and coping with trauma, developing resilience in children and adolescents, and balancing work/life responsibilities. His work has been featured in the The New York Times, and he has also appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, WebMD, Parents Magazine, and People Magazine.

Dr. Donahue’s practice at CDA includes child, adolescent, and family therapy, parent counseling, adult psychotherapy, and school consultation. He approaches his work through a developmental lens, and tries to understand and tackle the obstacles to healthier functioning that have arisen over the course of each individual’s life. Dr. Donahue is particularly interested in helping adolescents and young adults develop the coping skills to successfully manage the transition to living and working independently. He also specializes in coaching business executives and working parents to identify their personal and professional goals, and to develop and implement strategies that further their career and family aspirations. Paul enjoys working with parents of young children, providing practical solutions to common challenges in development.

Dr. Stephanie Donahue earned her doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Memphis as well as her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy at the University of Miami. Additionally, she received specialized training in early childhood mental health at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Donahue has primarily worked with children, adolescents and their families, providing therapy and conducting psychological evaluations. She has worked in a variety of settings including private practice, intensive psychiatric hospital programs, school-based services, in-home therapy, and forensic testing. She also has significant experience serving clients from culturally diverse backgrounds.

At CDA, Dr. Donahue provides individual and family therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and parent-child therapy. She also conducts psychological evaluations of children and adolescents. She utilizes evidence-based techniques to support clients who have social, emotional, and/or behavioral struggles as well as youth who have experienced traumatic events. In many cases, Dr. Donahue invites parents to participate in treatment, and she engages parent coaching practices to help parents develop stronger relationships with their children, establish limits more effectively, and support their children through challenging life circumstances.

Dr. Melissa Starr attained her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University. She completed her post-graduate training at Andrus Children’s Center in Yonkers, NY, where she focused on child and adolescent psychotherapy, family therapy and group therapy. Dr. Starr later joined the staff there as a full-time psychologist providing individual and group therapy to children and adolescents, as well as family and parent counseling. She also led social skills groups, as well as conducted comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations. She completed post-graduate training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy at the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.

Currently, Dr. Starr focuses on individual psychotherapy with school-age children and adolescents, and working with parents. Her areas of expertise include ADHD, anxiety, depression, emotion regulatory issues, learning disabilities, executive function weaknesses, and adjustment to difficult life circumstances, such as divorce. Dr. Starr prioritizes an understanding of the individuality of each patient by focusing on their strengths, areas of challenge, unique personality traits, developmental stage and their role in their family and social world. She helps her young clients develop a better understanding of themselves, and works on practical solutions to their problems using evidence-based treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. Working with parents and the family is integral to Dr. Starr’s goal of bridging the gap between treatment sessions and functional improvement.

Jennifer Warren has more than 25 years of experience as an individual and family therapist. She received her master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Social Work. She spent her early career as a clinician and supervisor at the Payne Whitney Clinic in Manhattan and New York Presbyterian Hospital in Westchester.  Ms. Warren received post graduate training in cognitive-behavioral therapy and completed an intensive training program with Dr. Marsha Linehan at the University of Washington in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. During that training Ms. Warren developed a longstanding interest in Mindfulness practice. She continues to use aspects of this contemplative approach in her work.

Ms. Warren’s current practice is devoted to individual psychotherapy with adolescents and adults, and couples’ therapy. She is an expert in the treatment of anxiety, stress reduction, and depression, and she enjoys working with people as they navigate all stages of the life cycle. Ms. Warren is adept at helping people cope with issues related to loss, illness, divorce and trauma, and she has a particular interest in addressing the challenges of work/life balance for parents. In her work with couples, Ms. Warren’s approach is pragmatic and warm, enhancing strengths while also helping partners to improve communication and collaboration.  Her psychotherapeutic approach with individual adolescent and adult patients is informed by evidence-based therapies, along with an interpersonal, psychodynamic understanding of human development and growth.