In practice for over three decades, Dr. Roberts is an experienced psychologist and neuropsychologist. Over her career she has helped people of all ages, from babies to older adults. She has been privileged to gain most of her experience and wisdom at university hospitals across New England and the tristate area.
Dr. Roberts seeks to understand people from a developmental perspective. In simple terms, she is interested in your life story—the impact your growing up years have had on who you are today and the experiences that have affected your journey. She works with you to fully understand the challenges you face and to envision what your positive outcome would look like. She is solution-oriented. She works directly with individuals but in the case of complex situations, often helps set up local teams and resources.
Dr. Roberts offers diagnostic and neuropsychological evaluation to identify strengths, gain understanding, and set up action plans to address the challenges surrounding an emotional, social, or health condition. She provides forensic evaluation of autistic individuals. In her practice of psychotherapy, her approach rests on her training and experience in human development, health, and mental health. She brings this perspective to her efforts to help children, families, and adults feel better and make changes. She offers consultation to parents, schools, and other organizations.
While she addresses a wide range of concerns, her clinical priorities include families affected by autism, forensic evaluation of autistic individuals, sexuality and gender concerns in autistic individuals, autistic individuals negatively affected by extremism and cults, and the needs of autistic girls and women. In addition to her focus on autism, she works with families affected by estrangement and offers specialized treatment forpsychosis.
Work Experience
From 2017-2019, Dr. Roberts was the National Director of Clinical Support Services for College Internship Program (CIP), a multi-site residential transition program for young adults with mild autism spectrum conditions and other learning differences. In that position, she gained a deep understanding of young adults with special needs and their families.
For over a decade prior to her position at CIP, Dr. Roberts held a faculty appointment with the NYU School of Medicine and was a psychologist and neuropsychologist at the NYU Child Study Center in Manhattan. In that capacity, she provided diagnostic and neuropsychological evaluation and psychotherapy to children, adults, and families, lectured, taught, and supervised interns, and consulted to schools and legal firms. During this time she was also a research evaluator at NYU’s Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience.
Prior to joining NYU, Dr. Roberts evaluated and treated children, families, and adults in various university and non-academic hospital settings in New England and the tristate area including Tufts New England Medical Center, Stony Brook University Hospital, and the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
Education
Dr. Roberts earned her undergraduate degree at Brown University. She completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at what was then Hahnemann University. She completed a two-year, postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. Both institutions have since become part of Drexel University.
Additional Training & Credentials
Dr. Roberts is research-level reliable with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2).
She completed certificate training at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior in PEERS, an evidence-based group social skills curriculum.
She earned her certificate in Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP) at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan. IHRP is a psychotherapeutic treatment for individuals experiencing problematic relationships with alcohol, substances, or risky behavior.
Media
Dr. Roberts has been a frequent guest on Sirius XM’s “Dr. Radio” program “About Our Kids.” She is a regular contributor to Autism Spectrum News, a national publication for professionals and families. Across her career at the NYU Child Study Center and in the years before, she offered webinars and many public lectures to professionals and in the community.
See below for a partial listing of media contributions:
SiriusXM Radio with Dr. Shatkin
“Autism & Family Vacation”
Autism Spectrum News Winter 2019
“Supporting Parents in the Transition Process” [p. 13]
Autism Spectrum News Spring 2018
“Co-Occurring Conditions in Mild Autism Spectrum Disorder:
Integrated Treatment Approaches” [p. 6]
Autism Spectrum News Fall 2016
“The ‘Self’ in Girls and Women with Autism Spectrum Disorder” [p.4]
The Autism Notebook October/November 2017
“Getting Unplugged: Helping Kids Discover Life Outside the Blue Screen” [p. 30]
Child Study Center Webinars at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone
“Babies and Autism: What Every Parent Needs to Know” April 2015
“Enjoying Your New Baby” March 2016