A child’s life rarely fits inside one system — Dr. Cohen collaborates across all of them.

Home, school, the pediatrician’s office, and sometimes the child welfare or legal system too — a fuller picture of a child’s needs comes from listening to everyone who’s part of their life. Dr. Cohen works directly with pediatricians, schools, social workers, and courts, including on behalf of children living outside their family of origin, in kinship care, foster care, or state custody, where clear, respectful collaboration across systems often makes the difference in the care a child receives.

Many pediatricians and primary care providers want mental health support for their patients but struggle to find it — Dr. Cohen helps close that gap.

Primary care providers are often the first to notice that a child is struggling, but ready access to child psychiatric expertise isn’t always there when they need it. Dr. Cohen provides consultation to pediatricians and other primary care providers on complex child and adolescent cases, so children get the right support without unnecessary delay or a referral into an already-overwhelmed system.

Dr. Cohen also supervises and trains other clinicians working with complex child and adolescent cases.

That training passes on the same integrated, whole-person approach that guides her own practice — looking at the full picture of a child’s physiology, history, and environment, rather than working from a checklist.

While my heart is in the clinical work I do with my patients, I've been enormously gratified by collaboration with attorneys and policymakers that has resulted in positive outcomes for larger populations of children and families.

This has included testimony before the United States Senate and a federal congressional committee on the impact of immigration policies on the mental health of children. My affidavit served as the principal evidence for a major federal class action case regarding families separated from their children. I organized and conducted a consultation service at the request of Alameda County Superior Court Justices to assist them with complex child welfare questions and serviced on an executive committee for the state of California to set criteria for the allocation of funds froma $50 million dollar grant designated ffor Juvenile Justice Diversion Programs.

I have written numerous expert reports for international court cases supporting the well being of children and continue my involvement in those cases. I have also contributed to Amicus briefs, one of which is attached to a case currently in line to reach the Supreme Court. I am available to provide expert evaluation, reports, and testimony in legal cases involving children and families, particularly those where psychological trauma and custody issues are addressed.
This work is deeply important to me.

I welcome inquiries from attorneys, courts, and policymakers, including direct consultation to judges