Assessment | Consultation | Counseling
Helping Children, Teens, Adults, and Families Realize Their Potential
Summit Center can provide the answers to your questions. We offer psychological and educational services for children, adolescents, adults, and families, including assessments, consultation, and counseling.
Our team of psychologists, consultants, and educators use a collaborative, strengths-based approach to work with our clients. Our goal is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the individual and provide a roadmap for making personal, parenting, school, and life decisions. Better understanding the “why” of a person’s behavior can provide relief to parents, teachers, and the individual, and is often the first key step toward maximizing potential.
Summit Center is open and following state and county guidelines. We are seeing clients in-person in our offices, and offering remote services when possible. Click here to learn more about our safety procedures, our Teleneuropsychological Assessment Services, and remote counseling and consultation services.
Make Your Worrier a Warrior
With this award-winning book by Dr. Dan Peters, parents can team up with their children or teens to help them conquer the Worry Monster. ORDER NOW
Evaluations & Counseling with Doctoral Trainees
Our training program allows more clients to access high-quality Summit Center services at reduced fees. Appointments are virtual when possible, or at our Walnut Creek office.
Parent Footprint Awareness Training
Dr. Dan’s interactive training program for parents is based on the fact that the most important predictor of how we parent is how we were parented as a child. LEARN MORE
Latest Newsletter
Summit Center Update: Podcasts on Mental Health. Parenting podcasts, documentary film, and CAG Family Conference. Read more in our newsletter! READ OUR NEWSLETTER
Are you or your child having trouble at school, home, at work, or with peers?
We offer psychological & educational services for children, adolescents, adults
Assessments
Counseling
The Summit Center offers individual, family, and group counseling (also known as psychotherapy) utilizing a strength-based approach to problem-solving and optimizing growth potential through a developmental lens. Our counseling services can help clients address a wide variety of issues.
Educational Therapy
Our trained professionals combine educational and therapeutic approaches to assist students whose learning challenges at school are not resolving. Some issues that we address include dyslexia, dyscalculia, test-taking difficulties, and problems with organization and managing time. Educational therapy is not the same as tutoring. Our work is remedial, designed to fill gaps in background, understanding, and learning strategies in order to develop independent learners.
Parent Education & Support
Summit Center offers workshops, classes, webinars, and discussion groups for parents, led by one of our experienced professionals. Groups for parents or gifted adults allow participants to share concerns and gain support from others who have similar experiences.
Our Expertise
Summit Center’s team of professionals offers a wide array of expertise to help children, teens, adults, or families deal with these issues:
- ADD/ADHD
- Anxiety
- Asynchronous development
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Dyslexia
- Executive-functioning issues
- Giftedness
- Learning and attention issues
- Perfectionism
- Sadness and depression
- Stress
- Twice-exceptional (2e)
- and more
Summit Center Blog
Being Twice Exceptional, by Melanie Hayes, Ed.D., AMFT
Marginalization causes daily stress for persons who have intersectional traits on both ends of the spectrum of ability-dis/ability, also known as twice exceptional. For these autistic adults, support systems are minimal, research is thin, and understanding is spotty...
WHEN I AM CALM: Helping Our Kids Manage “Big” Feelings
By Amy Parlin Feldman, M.Ed., LEP Big feelings are an important part of life, and learning how to manage anger, frustration and fear is hard work. Our bodies are pretty good at sending us clues to let us know when those kinds of tough feelings are starting to build,...
Perfectionism in Children: How Parents Can Help Bright, Complex Kids
BY JEAN SUNDE PETERSON (co-author of Bright Complex Kids with Dr. Dan Peters) I used to say, smiling, when discussing perfectionism that I wanted my surgeon, dentist, mechanic, electrician, and plumber to be perfectionists—but not my friends, spouse, or colleagues....
PODCAST
Parent Footprint with Dr. Dan
Dr. Dan Peters’s online talk show teaches parents, families, and caregivers how to leave their best footprint for the next generation. Dr. Dan interviews a top parenting expert in each episode, including doctors, therapists, authors, and educators, to discuss diverse and timely parenting topics. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or the show page.
Upcoming Events
24-27
March
“Convergence” California Speach Language Hearing Association Conference
Pasadena, CA
Event Info
Dr. Jeanne Lopez will speak with Deborah Ross-Swain Ed.D., CCC-SLP, of the Swain Center, on “The Role of the SLP in Recognizing and Avoiding Educational Trauma,” on Thursday, March 24, 2022.
Learn more and register at https://cshafoundation.org/convergence-2022/.
About the talk: Educational trauma is an inadvertent and unintentional phenomenon
that occurs in school-aged children, particularly children with learning struggles or
differences. Educational trauma can begin as leaning struggles as young as preschool aged
children. Learning how to understand, process and cope with difficulties is a natural part of a
child’s development. But sometimes a child can get stuck-like in the case of learning struggles
or difficulties. An experience or repeated experiences can leave a child with an overwhelming
sense of fear, failure or danger making feel that they have not safety or control over their
learning potential. For some children these feelings become so intense that they get in the
way of their continued emotional, social and even cognitive development. SLPs play an
integral role in the early identification of speech-language, learning or processing skill
weaknesses that can result in learning or educational struggles that can lead to learning and
educational trauma. This session provides an interprofessional practice (IPP) model on early
identification of children at risk for learning and educational trauma. The speakers will
present a model for understanding and mitigating educational trauma and defeat and current
practices and standards that may be contributing factors. Attendees will understand their
role in recognizing and avoiding educational trauma in school-aged children.
25-27
March
California Association for Gifted (CAG) Educator & Administrator Conference
VIRTUAL
Event Info
Virtual. The 60th Annual CAG EDUCATOR Conference will provide sessions from national experts on how to apply research-based strategies in your classroom and at your school site to develop the potential for diverse advanced and gifted students. Learn more and register at https://cagifted.org/events/.
4-8
April
Bright & Quirky Child Online Summit
VIRTUAL
Event Info
The 5th Annual Bright & Quirky Child Online Summit is here! This year’s theme is Discover What’s Possible!, and will show parents, teachers, and clinicians from around the world to learn how to help bright kids thrive, even with learning, social, emotional and/or behavioral challenges. Registration for the live event is free, with upgrades available to access recordings, join private groups for Q&A, additional masterclasses etc.
The speaker lineup includes many top psychologists, educators and child development experts, including Dr. Mona Delahooke, Dr. Barry Prizant, Debbie Reber, Dr. Michele Borba, Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson, Dr. Edward Hallowell and many more. On Day 1, Summit Center Executive Director Dr. Dan Peters will co-present with Tilt Parenting’s Debbie Reber on “Using Strengths to Move Beyond Stress and Struggles.”
Register early to reserve your free spot at https://brightandquirky.com/summit-2022/.