About Dr. Elder:
Dr. Lauren Elder is a clinical psychologist and owner of Ascent Psychological Services. She established her private practice in 2014 in San Diego before relocating to Cincinnati in 2021. She has a PhD in Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology and is board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology, a designation held by only 4% of psychologists in the United States. Her most recent published work was featured in the November 2023 issue of Autism Advocate Parenting Magazine, titled “Mental Health in Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities”.
In addition to her clinical work at Ascent, Dr. Elder provides consulting and training services to corporations, non-profits, and clinics on neurodiversity, autism, early intervention, developmental and neurodevelopmental disabilities, and mental health. With her extensive experience, advanced training, and commitment to providing high-quality care, Dr. Elder is well-equipped to offer expert consulting and training services tailored to your organization’s needs.
Available Topics:
- ADHD
- Autism
- Early intervention
- Childhood mental health
- Neurodiversity affirming care
- Emotion regulation and emotion coaching
- Play therapy for neurodivergent populations
- Therapy for those with Intellectual Disabilities
Recent Trainings Include:
- Autistic Culture & Advocacy for Shorelight
- Affirming Management of Neurodivergent Employees for Shorelight
- Neurodiversity for the Southwest Trauma-Informed Collaborative
- Parenting Neurodivergent Children in a Neurotypical World for the Southwest Trauma-Informed Collaborative
- Neurodiversity and the Social Context for Portland Public Schools
Recent Consulting Projects:
- Comprehensive staff training for Momentum
- Leading Pear Therapeutics in developing a digital autism intervention including landscape and prototype analysis
- Redesigning an early intervention program for the Neurological and Physical Abilitation Center (NAPA), including staff training, developing parent trainings, and implementing quality assurance measures
As the founder and chair of Shorelight’s Neurodiversity Employee Resource Group, I am so grateful to have connected with Dr. Elder and to have brought her expertise to our company. She delivered two company-wide presentations in April-May 2024, focusing on Autism Acceptance Month and Affirming Management of Neurodivergent Employees. These presentations were engaging, informative, and very well received! She combined technical knowledge of neurodiversity topics with real-life examples from social media as well as practical applications, which gave our team members a thorough overview of neurodiversity and a springboard to future learning. If your company is exploring neurodiversity education for management or the whole staff, I can’t recommend her highly enough!
Lauren is a skilled clinical leader with deep expertise in autism and child development. I had the pleasure of working with Lauren when she was hired as the Clinical Autism Spectrum Disorders Consultant for Pear Therapeutics. Her role was to lead the ASD clinical team to design the ASD program, including the clinical development plan. She did an analysis of the state of the field, helped develop an app prototype for families and individuals with autism, performed an analysis of the ASD provider landscape and presented the results to both internal leadership and pharmaceutical partners. I highly recommend her for future clinical development projects.
Lauren has had a significant impact on the families she serves. She provides genuine care and dedication, offering support and comfort to positively affect many lives. She has been an incredible resource for our families. Lauren has been a valuable partner in training and educating our team to become well-rounded early intervention educators. Her balanced approach to skill, Knowledge, and compassion have greatly influenced the outcomes of our programs.
Our company works with many consultants, and Lauren is at the top of the list. We brought her on board at Pear as the consulting clinical expert for Autism Spectrum Disorders. She quickly pulled together a detailed analysis of unmet needs and potential therapeutic approaches to to guide the team. This helped guide our business strategy in the autism field.
Lauren was efficient, highly proactive, and collaborative. She worked closely with internal Pear experts in design, engineering, and business development, and did a great job of guiding the team to a useful and viable product concept. Her deliverables, including an app prototype, were simply excellent. She even traveled extensively with us to present to pharmaceutical partners, a role in which her deep expertise and polished presenting skills made her an MVP.
I would absolutely hire Lauren again and hope to work with her again in the future.
I could learn this all day! This was a PHENOMENAL training and so important. Thank you!
Really, for myself it has offered awareness and the acceptance that I need to question and retrain my previous thinking in ways to support and engage with our diverse students.
I plan to continue to work on shifting my perspective on services for autistic students, how I interact with them and what goals I write. This was an incredibly helpful training, and I can't wait to dive more into the research that was shared!
Really, for myself it has offered awareness and the acceptance that I need to question and retrain my previous thinking in ways to support and engage with our diverse students.
I plan to continue to work on shifting my perspective on services for autistic students, how I interact with them and what goals I write. This was an incredibly helpful training, and I can't wait to dive more into the research that was shared!
