Therapy Services
Dr. Escudero Sopeña (she/hers/ella) conducts therapy and psychological assessment services with children (6 and up), teens and adults in both English and Spanish.
She also offers couples therapy, parent skills coaching, play therapy and family therapy as well as 1:1 DBT skills coaching (which can be done in tandem with another individual therapist).
She has particular expertise supporting conditions which include emotion dysregulation, chronic suicidality and self-harm.
She skilled at treating related support needs related to neurodivergence, including ADHD and Autism (L1), as well as common co-occurring conditions. In addition, she has experience treating anxiety, depression, OCD, perfectionism/overcontrol, and specific phobias among other conditions.
Dr. Escudero has a particular gift for communicating with difficult-to-reach, highly dysregulated and socially anxious clients. She is compassionate, patient and clear, and facilitates and models skill use to navigate high-conflict conversations with ease.
As a family and couples therapist, Dr. Escudero integrates Gottman and DBT principles to support skill building and connection. She has experience working with families navigating divorce, adoption, and other complex or high conflict family systems.
Treatment Approach
Dr. Escudero Sopeña is a highly skilled play therapist, creating intentional and unique opportunities for children and teens to learn skills, deepen emotional awareness, and understand themselves and others more completely (often without calling it therapy!) She is incredibly passionate about her work, and is a fierce advocate and cheerleader for her clients.
Dr. Escudero works closely with the parents of her younger clients who often have a hard time understanding their child in a manner that truly balances both sides-- leaving their child feeling seen and understood, and leaving the family with a greater sense of confidence about how they can continue to develop and maintain that understanding and come together as a unit.
Her passion extends to her neurodiversity-affirming framework, within which she provides powerful psychoeducation about various neurodevelopmental and related differences in a way that highlights the human, rather than the label itself, and teaches her clients to celebrate their differences while also learning skills to mitigate the impact of living in a neurotypical world and move toward the life they want.
Dr. Escudero-Sopeña works intentionally with the clients and families that she serves to develop a comprehensive and individualized treatment plan with clear, client-centered goals.
She attends closely to the cultural, systemic, and identity-related factors that contribute to psychological distress for her client and their loved ones by providing compassionate, person-centered and thorough skills integration using evidence-based approaches such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as well as Mindfulness-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT).
Psychological Assessment Services
As an assessment psychologist, Dr. Escudero-Sopeña specializes in the evaluation of psychological and neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD and Autism, in children, teens and adults. She is also able to administer assessments in Spanish.
She is particularly skilled with assessment of complex or misunderstood diagnostic profiles, including identification of high-masking presentations in under-studied groups (e.g., women and girls, BIPOC and LGBTQ+).
Dr. Escudero works hard to make the assessment experience as affirming and therapeutic as possible, because she knows that many of her clients and their families come for testing after years of being misunderstood and undersupported.
She ensures that her clients leave with a clear understanding of their strengths and support needs, providing highly tailored and individualized recommendations as well as follow-up support after the conclusion of testing.
Education & Licensure
Dr. Escudero-Sopeña completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Albizu University in Puerto Rico. Her dissertation involved the creation of a treatment manual for primary caregivers of older adults using Self- Compassion Focused Therapy.
Her undergraduate degree in Psychology was completed at The University of Puerto Rico, and her pre-and-post-doctoral fellowships were completed at a comprehensive DBT practice in the DC Metro area.
Dr. Escudero is licensed in Virginia, and offers telehealth with PSYPACT credentials in 40+ US states and territories.
Map of participating states: https://psypact.org/mpage/psypactmap
Virginia License #: 0810008242
PSYPACT/APIT Mobility #: 16155
-FUN FACT-
In her spare time, Dr. Escudero-Sopeña enjoys baking, crocheting, and serving as an unofficial tour guide of D.C. for her friends and family.