Welcome to My Practice

Join me to Welcome Joy

Welcome to my practice in Houston, Texas, and Washington, DC. In my personal and professional experience, I learned that while experiencing pain, fear, and sadness are important and necessary aspects of life, suffering is not necessary and is mostly self-imposed. I am a collaborative and interactive psychologist. My goal is to first, learn from the patient what hurts, but also, learn immediately to see what are the moments, images, and situations that they are able to experience joy. I invite patients to explore and experience a wide spectrum of emotions in response to different aspects of their reality. Suffering often happens as a result of thinking that having negative feelings is AWFULL. We learn by observing our daily emotions to understand the triggers to happiness, gratitude, and feelings of curiosity or satisfaction. We can replicate these moments to increase the frequency of positive emotions.

Control Emotions

Problems are often created when we stop the normal flow of emotion-cognition-action. We try and "forbid" certain emotions, or we elevate other emotions. Allow for negative emotions to flow through you so you can open yourself to moments of joy. It is about learning to defy the gravity of sadness and the immense chaos of the reality we live in.

Multi Generational Approach

Specializing in a multi-generational approach to solving behavioral, health, or mental health problems, I help patients address long-standing positive and negative familial patterns related to the permission to talk about problems openly. As we develop tolerance to imperfection, to the possibility that no one is above pain, sadness, and fear, we can stay in the rational realm when addressing life challenges.

Orna Goldwater, PhD - Specialties

Family & health psychologist

I am a collaborative and interactive psychologist. Practicing independently since 1996, I bring to my patients a common-sense approach to understanding and managing psychological and other life problems. As a clinical, family & health psychologist, I specialize in treating symptoms associated with depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorders that impact life and coping and may create or complicate physical problems.

Treatments for both conditions

I also treat conditions that are defined by psychological as well as physical symptoms, such as ADD/ADHD, addictions, fibromyalgia, and chronic conditions such as muscular dystrophy and Parkinson's. On many occasions I must include other professionals such as psychiatrists, family physicians, neurologists, or rheumatologists when working with patients with complex health problems.

Adulthood

Most patients seeking help in my office are often seeking help in coping or improving their skills to live a competent and successful adult life. Others are seeking help to improve their parenting so their children will become responsible, compassionate, and productive adults. Their desires usually involve managing three basic roles: personal/familial interactions, career choice and development, and managing or regulating emotions to be productive and be acceptable to others. Managing or coping with mental illness can be one element impacting their performance.

  • Adulthood involves all the following: managing life decisions when combining feelings with rationality. Making decisions based on either emotion or rational thinking often leads to disappointing outcomes.

  • Becoming healthy and well-functioning adults, or individuation, is one of the primary goals of patients seeking help in my office.

Addiction

Addictive behavior is one of the methods people use to avoid growing up and becoming fully functioning adults. To change addictive habits, patients first need to acknowledge that their addictive behaviors interfere with their ability to reach their personal or professional goals. Denial, blaming, or other methods of accusing others or their circumstances will make it difficult to take on the needed challenges or conjure up the motivation to change. Addictions (alcohol, substances, angry and lashing out behavior, food, sex, shopping, internet, or just passivity and sleeping) are methods we find to avoid reality or hold on to fantasies that often lead to self-sabotage or chaos.

Motherhood - Childhood Disorders

As a family psychologist, I sought extensive training to help me understand how to best help new mothers prepare for motherhood. I also provide guidance on how to best allow the father to become an integral part of the nurturing bond that leads to raising an optimistic and resilient child. One in every five or six new mothers experiences mild, moderate, or severe symptoms of postpartum anxiety and depression. One in every ten fathers exhibits symptoms related to postpartum issues. Depressed and anxious parents are unable to be present in a loving way and to allow for healthy bonding and the connection that the baby needs to help foster the healthy development of the regions of his/her brain most responsible for regulating emotions, self-calming, and healthy exploration.

Childhood disorders can be genetically endowed, environmentally induced, or the result of acute or repetitive traumatic experiences. Correctly identifying primary, secondary, or tertiary causes of symptoms that become evident in early or middle childhood helps build a treatment plan that will involve the child and others who interact with him/her. Recent research has made it clear that treating the child without including and coaching the adults is far less successful in comparison to choosing a team approach.

ADD/ADHD - Other Disorders with Physical, psychological, and cognitive manifestations

Attention deficit is not specific to children. It is a physiological syndrome with positive and negative traits that impact people from early childhood till late adult life. ADD/ADHD may impact some or all of the following: sleep, attention, concentration, tendency to procrastinate, anxiety about forgetfulness due to impact on short-term memory, organization, emotional regulation, a tendency to act impulsively due to underdeveloped filters, difficulty reading or interpreting social cues, and boredom. In the United States there has been a trend of overdiagnosing and overmedicating ADD/ADHD. Differential diagnosis is of utmost importance since in childhood many different disorders (especially childhood anxiety and depression) look similar to ADD/HD.

Treating Childhood Disorders

Physical and psychological disorders can start during gestation, as part of our biological/chemical makeup, or due to childhood trauma. Helping parents to understand the origins of their children's symptoms and becoming versed in how to manage symptoms without destroying the child's self-worth and self-image is one of the priorities in my office.

Managing Sleep

Over the last decade, researchers have found links between sleep disorders and a variety of physical and psychological difficulties. Restful sleep is linked with improved attention, increased vitality, reduced anger/irritability, reduced fatigue, and reduced addictive behaviors such as smoking, overeating, drinking, and risk-taking behavior. Many engage in such addictive behavior in order to self-calm. I encourage my patients to explore sleep hygiene: behaviors that aim to calm your body and mind ahead of time before going to bed. If behavioral change does not lead to relief, I will work with your physicians to seek a formal sleep study and explore available procedures. Sleep experts suggest pursuing activities that help clear the breathing pathways, such as swimming, hot showers, weight loss, reduced alcohol consumption, and reduced smoking, are all areas that can help improve sleep. In my practice, the most important aspect of the treatment is teaching patients to calm their brains so they can rest.

Couples Therapy

Emotional & Physical Intimacy

Managing Fights & Conflicts

Current research in happiness indicates that having a meaningful connection is the one single item related to physical and psychological health. Dr. Goldwater dedicated her professional life to utilizing state-of-the-art research related to health and family functioning and translating it into skills that people can learn and utilize at home. Over the last two decades, there have been immense new contributions to family psychology research, research about attachment, and the impact of healthy intimate connection on all aspects of human functioning. It is fascinating to see how individuals and groups respond to research-based interventions and skills training. Emotionally Focused Couple's Therapy & The Gottman Institute are just examples of how researchers and practitioners use data to change people's lives. In this practice, learning how to engage in meaningful intimate relationships and how to manage conflict to enrich the relationship are keys to positive outcomes not only at home but also at work and in our social relationships.

People with strong interpersonal skills tend to be trusted at work and promoted more often than individuals who are just skilled in their chosen profession without good "bedside manners." In her practice, Dr. Goldwater focuses on improving her patient's ability to relate to self and others.