I've scheduled a series of assessment visits for my son with Brad Berman for December, but would like to see someone before school starts in the fall. One of the recommendations his office staff gave me was for Marianna Eraklis in Orinda. I couldn't find any feedback on her in the BPN, so I'm hoping someone can fill me in. What do you think about her? Especially as it relates to assessments. Thanks for any feedback. Anon

I was very picky about her next step in school. I wanted to make her first experience functioning with typically developing kids as successful as I possibly could. So I visited a lot of regular preschools and picked the one that I thought matched her needs best in terms of physical set up, class size, structure of the day, and teaching style. She had a very positive school experience as the oldest child in a young-ish preschool group with teachers who were well-tuned-in to her temperament and very accepting of her particular pattern of strengths and weaknesses. Later school experiences have been more problematic, however. She gets easily overstimulated and has a lot of difficulty understanding social interactions with peers, especially when several children are involved. This has resulted in behavior problems, such as aggression, including growling and hitting when she tries to back kids off who she experiences as overwhelming, and fearfulness / anger toward other ch! ildren and, even, refusing to go to school. She also experiences frequent episodes of very low frustration tolerance - to the point that she gets backed into a corner and becomes quite rigid and unable to process things that she can usually tackle with ease. When she is both highly frustrated and feeling socially inadequate or confused, she can become explosively self-destructive.

When she was about 5, I took her to see Dr. Eraklis to see if there were residual SI issues that were getting in her way of trying to function in a wider and less protective world. I was impressed with several things about her work with my daughter. 1. My daughter was almost immediately comfortable with her and sent me out of the room so she could play with Dr. Eraklis on her own. 2. Dr. Eraklis took considerable time getting to know her. 3. She incorporated her assessments into the play in such a way that my daughter felt comfortable and engaged well with the exercises. (And it is very unlike my daughter not to balk at any kind of test or assessment.) 4. The report Dr. Eraklis wrote was the most accurate portrayal of my daughter of any assessment I have ever seen. (I should say, here, that I provided written info on my daughter's history and current difficulties as well as of her many strengths. But this is what I always do when I approach a professional for advice or assessment.) Being both a psychologist and a consumer of psychological services for myself and both of my children, I have seen a lot of assessments. Almost all of the reports I have seen of either children or adults have included at least a few, and sometimes many factual errors concerning the medical history, family constellation, school experience, etc. It was a relief to see how accurately she saw my child. Her accuracy inspired my confidence in her interpretation of the assessments she had done and the conclusions she drew. 5. When the report was complete she and I sat down for the customary discussion of her findings. She was very generous with her time and made me feel I could ask every question I had. We spent easily an hour discussing what she had found and what it might mean for my daughter and for our next steps.

Dr. Eraklis concluded that my daughter had almost completely overcome the SI problems, but still had lots of feelings about the very difficult experiences she had endured and that she needed a chance to learn and practice the skills she had missed out on during her early years. I found her a very highly trained play therapist who is knowledgeable about SI, and she and my daughter have been working together for over 3 years now.

Over all, I would say, the wait to get in to see Dr. Eraklis was short, the assessment was carefully done, and I felt we were lucky to have found her.

I hope this information is helpful to you. hsia