Educational therapy is quite familiar to educators and parents on the West Coast. Even the new TV drama, "Parenthood" has a child receiving educational therapy. However, educational therapy continues to be a novel approach to folks on the East Coast.

One way of looking at it is to compare the school curriculum's expectations with the individual student's learning profile. Unfortunately, the two are not always a compatible match. For example, the social environment of the school may not be in harmony with the student's level of development for social thinking. The educational therapist is at the intersection where the school's teaching style and expectations meet the student's position in terms of preparedness, agility, versatility, talents, emotional resilience, social experience and perspective. The educational therapist, whose tools are empathy, knowledge of development, and skills for treatment, strives to create a treatment alliance with the student, school, and family where those things that need to be changed can be identified and addressed for better learning outcomes.

Educational therapy for adults is very similar. The educational therapist is at the intersection of workplace expectations and the individual's station in terms of skills and social/emotion resources.