Little Dove

"Trust me, we're making progress" isn't good enough.

Most parents who come to us have tried therapy before. Or their older kid did. Or a friend's child. And the story tends to sound the same: a few months of sessions, a vague sense that something was happening, and no real way to know whether the work was making a measurable difference.

That uncertainty is the most expensive part of pediatric mental health care. Not the session fees. The not-knowing.

At Little Dove Psychology, we measure every client. Standardized symptom tracking at intake, then again every four to six weeks throughout treatment. The scores are reviewed with the family. The trajectory shapes what we do next.
This is called measurement-based care, and the research is clear: clinicians who track outcomes catch ineffective treatments in the first two months. Clinicians who do not measure often catch them at month six, eight, or never.

We do not promise specific outcomes. No good clinician should. What we promise is that the work will be tracked, the data will be honest, and the decisions about what to do next will be informed by something real.

Read the full post on what measurement-based care looks like in our practice: littledovepsychology.com/blog-measurement-based-care

Free 15-minute consultations available throughout the week. Virtual sessions across Texas and 42 PSYPACT states. Same-week intake. Evening and weekend appointments.

Parents tell us the same thing over and over:
"I want to get my kid into therapy, but I can't take off work every week."
So we built our practice around that reality.

Most pediatric mental health practices keep 9-to-5 office hours. For families with two working parents, hourly jobs, or shared custody schedules, that often means therapy gets started and then dropped before the work has a chance to take hold.
Here's what most parents don't know: the modalities we use to help kids are cumulative. Cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure-based work, DBT skills, parent coaching, all of it builds over weeks. When a kid attends three of four scheduled sessions, the skills compound. When they attend one of four, you're often starting over each visit.

In other words, the best therapy for your kid is the one they can actually attend.
That's why we offer evening and weekend appointments. Virtual sessions across Texas and 41 PSYPACT states, so kids can attend from either parent's home, after school, or on a Saturday morning. Same-week intake. Private-pay with superbills.
If your child has been on a waitlist, or you've been delaying because of scheduling, we'd love to help.

Free 15-minute consultations available throughout the week. Read the full post at www.littledovepsychology.com

You've been bracing before your kid even answers a question. You're not failing. You're in transition, which is harder than anyone tells you.

New guide for Austin parents trying to figure out what to do next about family conflict that's grown bigger than they can handle.

Free to read. Free consult if you want to talk.

https://littledovepsychology.com/blog-family-therapy-austin

Little Dove Psychology has officially organized our work around four areas where we see kids, teens, and college students need the most support:
→ Anxiety
→ Depression
→ Family conflict and communication
→ DBT-informed emotion regulation

Why these four? Because they're what actually walks through the door. The kid who can't sleep before school. The teen who's stopped wanting to do the things she loved. The family that can't have one conversation without it turning into a fight. The young person whose feelings are bigger than they know how to hold.

We're a team of three licensed clinicians serving Texas and 41 PSYPACT states virtually. Founded and led by Dr. Kristin Kroll, PhD. Private-pay, with superbills available.If any of this sounds like the support your family is looking for, we'd love to talk. Free 15-minute consultation:
https://littledovepsychology.com

First thing I learned working in pediatric cardiology:

A 7-year-old about to have open-heart surgery can be calmer
than a 7-year-old about to ride the school bus.

Same nervous system. Wildly different reactions.

Why?

Anxiety isn't about how scary the thing is.
It's about whether the kid believes they can handle the thing.

The surgery kid has been prepared. They've met the surgeon,
practiced holding the oxygen mask, walked the route from the
car to the OR doors. Every scary step has been walked through —
out loud, with specifics, more than once.

The school bus kid has been told "you'll be fine" five mornings
in a row.

This is the thing most parenting advice gets wrong. Anxious kids
don't need you to convince them the scary thing isn't scary.
They need you to walk them through the scary thing until it feels
navigable.

I spent years at Children's Wisconsin with kids who had every
reason to be terrified — and many of them weren't, because their
parents and care teams did the unglamorous work of preparation.

Built Little Dove Psychology around the same idea. Anxiety treatment
isn't about talking kids out of their worry. It's about building the
belief, in their bodies, that they can handle what comes.

If your kid is stuck in the "what if" loop, the free toolkit walks
through starting points — 10 signs, 7 scripts, 3 exercises.
Link in bio.

Your kid says "I don't want to go to school."

You say: "You have to go." / "You'll be fine." / "It's one day, please."

They dig in. You escalate. You're both in tears by 7:45.

Try this instead:

"Tell me the part that feels hardest."

That's it.

Not "what's wrong?" (too big). Not "why?" (sounds like an interrogation).

"The part that feels hardest" forces them to locate the anxiety in
a specific thing — the bus, a classmate, the first 10 minutes of math.
Once you know the specific thing, you can actually do something
about the specific thing.

And 9 times out of 10, the part that feels hardest isn't school itself.
It's the worry that something will happen and they'll have to handle
it alone.

More scripts like this in the free toolkit — link in bio.

I kept getting variations of the same DM:

"My kid is melting down at [bedtime / drop-off / the dinner table]
and I don't know what to do anymore."

So I made this.

8 pages. Free. For Texas parents of anxious kids — or the ones who
aren't sure if it's anxiety or just… being a kid.

What's in it:
- 10 signs your kid might need more than reassurance (with a scoring
rubric so you actually know)
- 7 things to stop saying to anxious kids (and exactly what to say instead)
- 3 breathing exercises that actually work — age-banded from 4 to tween
- A no-bs guide for when it's time to call a professional

No 12-week email funnel. No "daily tips to your inbox."
Just the PDF. Link in bio.

If you've been telling yourself you should probably figure out
the anxiety thing before it gets worse — this is the thing.

I was in the middle of a presentation — a real, professional, people-are-watching presentation — when my daughter walked into my office for the third time.
I made threatening hand gestures under my desk while maintaining full eye contact with my we**am. The moment there was a break, I spun around, shoved a snack into her hands, and whispered "please, I am begging you, go watch The InBestigators."
I have a PhD in psychology. And if that makes me a bad parent, go ahead and give me an "F."
Parenting culture right now wants you to believe every decision is make-or-break. So I wrote about the hills I've stopped dying on — and the ones I will absolutely defend with my last breath and a lukewarm coffee.
Hills I've stopped dying on:
— Screen time that isn't perfect (the 4-hour threshold is where it gets concerning, not the 45 minutes while you finish a work call)
— Snack bribery (my daughter gets a poke at the doctor? Damn right she's getting a lollipop. And I bribe myself with coffee to finish tasks — that's just behavioral psychology working as designed.)
— Having it all figured out (I can't change a tire. I can't cook a decent meal. I'm still raising a strong, independent kid.)
Hills I will die on:
— Consistent sleep habits
— Exercise for ME (it keeps me from being the child psychologist on the news for something other than mental health recommendations)
— Saying "I'm sorry" when I've erred as a parent
— Feelings are always okay. Behavior isn't always okay.
Kids don't need perfect. They need a parent who shows up, who holds the important lines, and who knows when to let the small stuff go.
And if you need a cheese stick to get through the afternoon? Take two. You've earned it.