The Kahane Center

The Kahane Center is committed to providing personalized, innovative, and comprehensive mental-health services that integrate all spheres of life. Through early intervention and by utilizing a tailored, strength-based approach, the Kahane Center helps children, adolescents and adults learn to compensate for underlying difficulties and achieve psychological well-being.

Dr. Tamar Kahane

Dr. Tamar Z. Kahane has been in private practice for seventeen years, providing excellent psychological care through her specialized, unique approach to mental health. She served as the senior psychologist in the Solomon Schechter School of Bergen County for seven years. She trained at the Kennedy Center at Albert Einstein Hospital and at St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital, receiving her doctorate of psychology from Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology and her bachelor of arts from Barnard College, Columbia University. During her time at Einstein Dr. Kahane received a grant to study the socio-emotional aspect of a learning disability from a neurological perspective, from which stemmed her subspecialty in social skills training. As a pioneer in this field she introduced social skills training to her practice over seventeen years ago and continues to run multiple groups at the Center.

Dr. Kahane lectures frequently, provides supervision to a number of psychologists and professionals both in and out of her practice, and consults with many schools in the Metropolitan area.

The Kahane Center is an out of network, outpatient private provider and does not contract directly with insurance companies. However, we provide our patients with an insurance bill that contains all pertinent information in order to ensure maximal insurance reimbursement.

Child Services

Just as we are all familiar with the physical milestones that mark a child's development so too there are certain emotional, social, and cognitive milestones that a child needs to achieve in order to be successful in life. Because these milestones are less visible to the naked eye they are more difficult to discern and few parents have the training to assess them. Doctoral level child psychologists have extensive training in the assessment and treatment of this area of a child's development.

When a child has difficulty reaching these emotional, social or cognitive milestones the effect is hugely pervasive. These setbacks interfere with basic functionality and take a toll on the child's self-esteem, his/her relationship with his/her parents and the dynamic of the family.

But with effective intervention the child can be helped.

The Kahane Center is dedicated to early intervention because of the plasticity of the developing brain as well as the malleability of the developing family structure when a child is young. By establishing a partnership with parents and schools we help each child utilize his or her own strengths in order to most effectively compensate for difficulties.

After a thorough evaluation and assessment of all spheres of the child's development, the child and parents are helped to understand the etiology of the specific challenges. Then, depending on the individual needs of the child, we utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), psycho-dynamically oriented therapy, play therapy, behavioral therapy, social skills groups, as well as other interventions, so as to enable the child to better navigate through life. The child and parents are given the tools to actively facilitate and promote the child's development.

As a pioneer in the field of social skills training, Dr. Kahane provides multiple groups for children in preschool through high school. When she began them twenty years ago, these groups were a ground-breaking endeavor based upon her doctoral research to target and remediate the deficits of children who suffer from social skills problems by utilizing small group dynamics. It is now recognized that social skills difficulties are a significant piece of the problem for children that suffer from ADD, ADHD, anxiety and mood based disorders and a host of other issues that affect the quality of their social, school and family life. Dr. Kahane utilizes a unique approach to target and teach the multitude of skills that comprise socialization. The groups teach and reinforce social skills, giving the children the tools they need to function more adaptively and comfortably in their world. Group members are carefully matched based on appropriate criteria for optimal group dynamics. Groups are limited to a small size and run for ten week sessions.

Transitions are difficult for even the most well-adjusted of kids, and moving out of one's childhood years and into adulthood can be a trying experience. Confronting peer pressure, alcohol and drugs, issues of sexuality, internet safety, and the academic pressures of school can be overwhelming for teenagers and their parents, who often feel ill equipped to deal with these new challenges. We believe in fortifying both teenagers and parents to face these challenges together, and equipping adolescents with the tools they need to better understand themselves and their surroundings.

Conditions such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and eating disorders, as well as stressors such as marital conflict, life transitions, divorce, and career challenges can be tremendously painful and debilitating Through effective intervention we are able to help adults identify and overcome the stumbling blocks in their personal or professional spheres, obtain a better grasp of their goals and achieve psychological well-being in order to grow in their lives.

Most children appear to naturally acquire social skills just by virtue of living in a world of people. They learn how to make eye contact, how to speak on topic, how to initiate with another child, how to maintain reciprocity and read body language, and many other critical skills that make up socialization. Children with Asperger's Syndrome are unable to acquire these skills incidentally. This results in a deficit in social relatedness that significantly impairs their ability to function. This deficit is characteristic of Asperger's Syndrome as well as related disorders such as High Functioning Autism, PDD-NOS and Non Verbal Learning Disabilities.

Twenty-three years ago Dr. Kahane received a grant from the Kennedy Center of Albert Einstein College of Medicine to study the social and emotional aspects of a learning disability. Building on this study with her dissertation, she explored the social-emotional aspects of a learning disability from a neurological perspective. Shortly thereafter it became clear to her that although the academic and emotional repercussions of a learning disability were being addressed, the social aspect of the learning disability was not. For this reason, over eighteen years ago, she developed a curriculum and began leading social-skills training groups that would help children learn to compensate for their social deficits. This was one of the first social-skills programs in the country. The program continues under her guidance at The Kahane Center and has helped hundreds of children and their families.

Additionally, realizing the effect that having a sibling with Aspergers has on the family, The Kahane Center has developed a program called Siblings. This program helps siblings of individuals with Aspergers gain the support, skills and understanding in order to better deal with their siblings disorder.

The prevalence of poor dietary habits and its negative impact on the health and well-being of children is a real problem. Experts agree that today's diet is in crisis and its negative effects are being seen most pervasively amongst children.

Together with nutritionists who are registered dietitians, we have developed an innovative approach to healthy eating at the Kahane Center to help deal with picky eaters, overeaters, and junk foodies, amongst other eating disorders. The ten session program facilitates a positive awareness and relatedness towards food that extends beyond what is on the plate.

Just like children are taught how to read, write, and do arithmetic, they also need to learn how to be a student. They need to learn organizational skills, time management skills, how to break down large assignments into smaller steps, how to study and keep on top of their own work. For some children these skills develop naturally for others additional help is needed. The Kahane Center's objective is to provide children with alternate tools and strategies needed to help them utilize their strengths effectively in order to compensate for their underlying weaknesses. In doing so we can empower students to feel more successful, both in and out of the classroom.

Every individual is a product of his or her family and the family dynamic is hugely influential on an individual's life. For parents, the leaders of the family, gaining insight and understanding the role that each member of the family plays is important. Families are a constantly evolving structure, with tremendous potential to be fortifying or damaging to the family members, depending on the underlying dynamic. Stress at work, divorce, physical and emotional illness, sibling rivalry, financial constraints, among many other issues are normal challenges that can put stress on the family. At the Kahane Center, we offer parents insight into their family structures and provide the necessary tools to shift ineffective family dynamics and help the family learn to function better together.

The Shadow Training Institute at the Kahane Center provides professional training for those who are pursuing a career as a shadow, or for parents and schools who wish to provide directed training for their shadows or teachers.