Rebecca Stetson Werner, PhD

Dr. Rebecca Stetson Werner is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Director of Neuropsychology at Boston Child Study Center – Maine.  She specializes in working with young children, school-aged children and adolescents, as well as young adults, providing clinical treatment and comprehensive psychological, developmental, and psychoeducational evaluations. 

Dr. Stetson Werner earned her B.A. in Psychology and English from Amherst College and her doctoral degree in Clinical Developmental Psychology from Bryn Mawr College. She completed her pre- and postdoctoral clinical training at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven with specialized training in the psychological assessment and clinical treatment of young and school-aged children, adolescents, and their families. She then completed an NIMH-funded postdoctoral research fellowship at the Child Study Center investigating the social development and understanding of young children. She worked with the Center’s Young Child Team, providing developmental evaluations and clinical intervention for families with infants through their early school years. Dr. Stetson Werner’s training and experience also focused on the assessment of academic and learning-based capacities and behaviors from the early school through post-secondary education years. Recognizing the key role families play in supporting their children, she is trained in family systems and psychodynamically-informed play therapy as well as in parenting support and intervention. 

Dr. Stetson Werner’s training continues to inform a developmental and systems-based perspective and focus on processes that support typical pathways of growth and resilience and where areas of vulnerability can emerge. Her evaluations are oriented toward increasing understanding of each individual’s strengths and weaknesses across a broad range of functioning. These include social relationships and capacities, emotional and behavioral regulation, educational, memory, and learning-based skills, attention and executive functioning, and adaptive, behavioral, and emotional functioning.  Areas of diagnostic speciality include neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities and disorders, disorders of anxiety, depression, and mood, and significant psychiatric concerns. Areas of clinical interest and specialization include a transdiagnostic understanding of assessed areas of functioning and how each individual may express their capacities in unique and nuanced ways, often influenced by their identity development, gender identity, and aspects of their developmental history. Evaluations with Dr. Stetson Werner can include assessment measures of cognitive and adaptive functioning, learning and memory, attentional and executive functioning, social interaction and communication skills, peer relationships and capacities, academic levels and associated skills, and socioemotional, behavioral, personality, and psychiatric functioning.  Evaluations of social functioning may include the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition ADOS-2.  Dr. Stetson Werner’s therapeutic work is individualized and integrates evidence-based treatment, including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), as well as play-based treatment for young children, family systems theory, and cognitive behavioral therapy.   She works collaboratively with parents and guardians, teachers, and other providers as a part of the evaluation and therapeutic process.