Services
Counseling
You know your child better than anyone. If worry, frustration, or behavior has started to decide how the school day goes, trust your instincts.
Individual counseling for children and adolescents when emotional or behavioral concerns are getting in the way of learning and school. The work is practical and focused: understanding what is making school hard, and building the skills that help your child get back on track.
What this is
Counseling connected to learning and behavior.
Counseling at Crescent is focused on the emotional and behavioral side of school. Sometimes that is worry that keeps a child out of class. Sometimes it is the frustration that builds after years of working harder than everyone else, or a child who has started to believe they are not smart. Sometimes it is organization, follow-through, and the daily skills that school quietly assumes.
Emotional and behavioral concerns that affect school
Worry, low confidence, frustration, and behavior that are getting in the way of learning, attendance, or friendships. Sessions focus on coping strategies, emotional regulation, and motivation.
Attention and executive functioning
Practical skills for managing time, staying organized, breaking down tasks, setting priorities, and following through, built around your child’s actual school week.
Social skills
Understanding social cues, communicating with more confidence, and handling the situations at school that keep going wrong, through guided practice and feedback.
Life skills
For older students and young adults, the practical routines that support independence: planning, organization, and problem-solving in daily life.
What counseling here is not
It is not treatment for depression, bipolar disorder, or psychotic disorders. When a child needs that level of care, we help the family find the right treating provider. Counseling is one to one.
Who it’s for
For children and adolescents who are struggling, and the parents who see it.
It may fit when:
- Your child has started pulling away from family and friends, and school seems to be part of why.
- Worry has started to decide whether your child gets to school, or stays.
- Big feelings after school have become the hardest part of the day.
- Your child has stopped believing that effort will make a difference.
- Organization and follow-through keep undoing work your child is capable of.
- Friendships and group situations at school keep going wrong.
If you are not sure whether your child needs counseling, an evaluation, or both, that is what the free consultation is for.
What to expect
Four steps, at your child’s pace.
- 1
Tell us what’s happening.
Use the contact page, in your own words. Do not send records, diagnoses, or detailed health information through a public form.
- 2
We talk it through.
The free 15-minute consultation is where we work out whether counseling fits, what you are hoping for, and whether an evaluation or parent coaching would be a better first step. Fees are discussed there.
- 3
Sessions with your child.
Counseling is goal-focused and collaborative. We set goals together, and sessions build the specific skills and strategies those goals call for.
- 4
You stay involved.
Parents are part of the work. We check in on what is changing at home and at school, and where it helps, parent coaching runs alongside.
Our approach
Grounded in how children learn.
Counseling here draws on more than twenty years in special education. That matters because the emotional side of school is rarely separate from the learning side. A child who is anxious about reading, or angry about homework, is often responding to something real. Understanding what is underneath the behavior is what makes the support useful.
Who you’ll work with
Who you’ll work with.
Crescent is led by Marcia Lynn Miller, Licensed Educational Psychologist (LEP #3015), Nationally Certified School Psychologist, MA in Counseling Psychology. You’ll work directly with the person providing your child’s counseling.
More about the practice is on About.
Logistics
By appointment
Counseling is by appointment, serving California’s Central Valley and Central Coast. In person in Fresno, Madera, Merced, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito Counties. Virtual throughout California. No public street address.
How we meet, and how often, is set together when we talk.
Counseling is not emergency care. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911.
Fees & insurance
Discussed at consultation
Crescent is private pay and does not bill insurance. Fees are discussed at consultation. For the practice-wide explanation, see Fees & Insurance.
Common questions
Asked before, answered plainly.
Is this therapy?
Counseling at Crescent is focused on the emotional and behavioral concerns that affect learning and school, which is the scope of a Licensed Educational Psychologist. It is not treatment for more serious mood or psychiatric conditions. If your child needs that, we will say so and help you find the right provider.
What ages do you work with?
Children and adolescents, and young adults where the concern is connected to school, learning, or independence.
Does my child need an evaluation first?
Not always. Some children start with counseling. Sometimes it becomes apparent along the way that a fuller picture would help, and an evaluation can follow. The free consultation is where we sort which comes first.
Is counseling in person or virtual?
Either. In person in Fresno, Madera, Merced, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito Counties, and virtual throughout California.
How is this different from parent coaching?
Counseling is work with your child. Parent coaching is work with you, on what to try at home and how to respond when things go wrong. Many families use both.
Related pages
- Parent coaching: support for you
- Special education consultation: help with the school side
- Evaluations: when you need a fuller picture first
- About: the practice
- Contact
- Anxiety, ADHD, and Autism: related concerns, not substitutes for this page
Start with a conversation
Restore your peace.
You do not have to carry this by yourself.
Tell us what’s happening, and let’s figure it out together.
Prefer to talk? Call or text (559) 287‑8351.
Marcia Lynn Miller, LEP #3015 · Independent practice
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