Meet Kailey, Ph.D., LMHC

Kailey Spina Horan, Ph.D., LMHC, is a licensed mental health counselor who also holds a doctorate in Mental Health Counseling from Pace University. She is an ADHD-Certified Clinical Services Provider and Psychology Today Contributor. Kailey has counseled a broad spectrum of clients for more than nine years and provides individual and parent sessions for children, teens, and young adults. She currently specializes in treating ADHD, anxiety disorders, and OCD. Finally, Kailey loves to learn and write about neurodiversity on her Psychology Today Blog, “The Reality of Gen Z.”
PHILOSOPHY
Her method is eclectic as she does not believe in the “one size fits all” approach to therapy. As such, she tailors each session to the individual needs of the client or family. Her main therapeutic modality is a results-oriented integration of both a strengths-based and a mindfully informed approach built upon a solid foundation of empathy, compassion and trust. Simply put, she does not view clients as a set of symptoms or diagnoses. Rather than focus solely on a client’s need for improvement, she believes it is also beneficial to utilize an individual’s unique strengths. In 2015, she began writing her dissertation which explored mindfulness and its effect on risky decision making in young adults. As she analyzed data, she found that indeed mindfulness was able to mitigate the detrimental effects of risky decision making for our youth. Shortly thereafter, she decided to take a yearlong course in mindfulness, psychotherapy and meditation to discover the benefits for herself as well as its clinical application. After earning her certificate, she is now able to teach clients across the lifespan about meditation and the long-lasting benefits of living in the present moment, devoid of judgement. She solely utilizes evidenced based practices including Cognitive behavioral therapy, Mindfulness, Exposure therapy for phobias, Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD, Behavior Modification, Motivational interviewing, Organizational Skills Training, Psychoeducation, Solution focused brief therapy, and Parent Training and Education.
What is the meaning of True North?

I have often referenced life being like a map. Each of us are given the same one but with distinctly different paths with their own set of unique challenges. Often times when out of alignment with who we truly are, we experience fear, anxiety, depression, or general discontentment. This proverbial misalignment results in difficulty navigating or choosing a path that is best for our overall well-being. A therapist is like a compass, an advantageous and effective tool used to assist in finding the right course to chart. They do not dictate where one “should” go rather they educate an individual about where they are in relation to where they would ultimately like to be. True North is the figurative direction that will always lead you toward choices that help you live and reach your full potential.