About Dr. Ellingsen
Kirsten Ellingsen, PhD, PMH-C
Dr. Ellingsen is a licensed psychologist with advanced training in early childhood pediatric psychology and perinatal wellness.
She owns a private practice in South Tampa and Sarasota. Dr Ellingsen specializes in perinatal wellness and supporting parents, children, and teens. She is dedicated to improving the health, functioning, and development of children.
My aim as a psychologist is to promote positive functioning, discover talents and strengths, develop skills to reduce suffering and distress, facilitate connection and enhance relationships.
Areas of Expertise
Dr. Ellingsen uses research supported and evidence based treatments.
She specializes in ASD, anxiety, chronic illness, ADHD, depression, giftedness (particularly twice exceptional children/teens), parenting, and maternal mental health.
Practice:
Dr. Ellingsen works with children and parents to improve well being and functioning, strengthen relationships, and build skills to better manage stress, anxiety, behavior, and emotions. Participation in therapy is collaborative with a focus on strengths, reducing challenges, and increasing effective coping strategies to allow for optimal engagement in daily life.
Dr Ellingsen has been dedicated to supporting children and families for more than 25 years through clinical practice, research, and community collaboration and consultation. Professional expertise includes child and adolescent development, early childhood pediatric psychology, early intervention, parenting, and maternal mental health. She holds a license in psychology and a Perinatal Mental Health Certification (PMH-C) from Postpartum Support International (PSI). Clinically, she has provided psychological service within schools, homes, hospitals, preschools, private practice, and early intervention centers, often with an interdisciplinary team. She served as a national research director for an early intervention home visiting program (HIPPY USA) and participated on the design and implementation of several national early intervention studies.
She has experience establishing national research advisory groups, developing collaborative research partnerships, publishing on early childhood assessments and training professionals. Research experience also includes serving as an invited speaker at international conferences and designing instruments and trainings for national intervention and longitudinal studies (Even Start, Early Head Start, Head Start FACES, ECLC-K and ECLS-B). Dr Ellingsen has authored various books chapters on child assessment, disability, and the WHO ICF and presented a local, state, national and international conferences. Together, her clinical and research experience have allowed a depth of understanding and expertise in early intervention and holistically supporting children and parents.
Community Engagement:
Dr Ellingsen has over two decades involvement in leading research at local, state, national, and international levels. Her aim is to support parents, build strong relationships, and help children/teens develop to their best potential to participate fully in all areas of their lives. She served as a national research director for an early intervention home visiting program and taught psychology graduate coursework at different universities. She has been an invited expert and presenter at international conferences and national early childhood and disability workgroups, as well as presented her dissertation work on the World Health Organization ICF-CY at various national conferences. Dr Ellingsen has provided clinical treatment in hospital, school, behavioral health setting, and home settings and authored various books chapters on child assessment and the ICF-CY.
Supporting Development
Strengthening Connections
Enhancing Health & Wellbeing
Conditions Treated Include
- ADHD
- Adoption
- Asperger’s Syndrome
- Autism
- Behavioral Issues
- Chronic Illness
- Chronic Pain
- Coping Skills
- Depression
- Developmental Disorders
- Dual Diagnosis
- Education and Learning Disabilities
- Parenting
- Peer Relationships
- School Issues
- Spirituality
- Stress
- Testing and Evaluation
Treatment Approach
Attachment-based
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Compassion Focused
Culturally Sensitive
Family Systems
Intervention
Play Therapy
Positive Psychology
Psychological Evaluation
Strength Based
Trauma Focused
Learn More About Dr. Ellingsen’s Practice
View presentations, publications, and trainings.
Select Publications & Presentations
Publications
- Ellingsen, K., Karacul, E., Chen, M.T., and Simeonsson, R.J. (2017). The ICF goes to school: contributions to policy and practice in education. In Susan Castro & Olympia Palikara (Eds.), An emerging approach to education and care: Implementing a worldwide classification of functioning and disability. NY, NY and Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge
- Ellingsen, K. (2016). Standardized assessment of cognitive development. In A. Garro (Ed.), Early Childhood Assessment in School and Clinical Psychology (pp. 25-49). NY: Springer Publishing.
- Ellingsen, K., Boone, D, & Chavis, L. (2016). Assessment related to developmental disabilities and psychological disorders during early childhood. In A. Garro (Ed.), Early Childhood Assessment in School and Clinical Psychology (pp. 203-231). NY: Springer Publishing.
- Ellingsen, K. Burch-Lewis, A., & Pham, A. (2012). Learning and applying knowledge. In A. Majnemer (Ed.), Measures of outcomes and their determinants for children and youth with developmental disabilities (pp. 282-302). London: Mac Keith Press. Adolfsson, M., Simeonsson, R. Lee, A. & Ellingsen, K. (2012). Major life areas. In A. Majnemer (Ed.), Measures of outcomes and their determinants for children and youth with developmental disabilities. (pp. 435-439). London: Mac Keith Press
Presentations
- Ellingsen, K (chair), Wood, A. L., Balos, J., Ross-Donaldson, S., & Boyer, M. (December 2022). Providing Better Support for Perinatal Loss and Grief: What to say, what to do, where to find help, 7th Annual Florida Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative Conference. Tampa, FL.
- Ellingsen, K. (chair), Flynn, H., Brognano, L. Knudson Gonzalez, D, MD and Boyer, M. (2021, December). Evidence Based Practice for Perinatal Wellness. Panel Presentation at the Florida Maternal Mental Health Collaborative, Perinatal Mental Health Conference, Tampa, FL.
- Ellingsen, K (2022, April). Supporting the wellbeing of pregnant and postpartum mothers. Contracted developer and trainer for Champions for Children, Tampa FL. Provided training 3 times to approximately 100 frontline workers on screening and understanding perinatal anxiety and depression.
- Ellingsen, K. M., (2014, November). Supporting Children with complex health conditions and their families in educational and medical settings. Invited presentation for the 10th annual 10th International Parent-Child Forum, 10th Annual Anniversary Conference of China Medical University Children’s Hospital, Taichung Taiwan.
- Ellingsen, K. M., (2014, November). Collaborating with parents and professionals to promote the health and development of children with complex health conditions. Invited Workshop Presented for the 10th International Parent-Child Forum, 10th Annual Anniversary Conference of China Medical University Children’s Hospital, Taichung Taiwan.
- Ellingsen, K., (2013, April). Applying a unified global framework in pediatric psychology: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF-CY) Developmental code sets. In E. Puffer (chair), Beyond the clinic walls: Reducing U.S. and global health disparities through community-based and culturally anchored intervention models. Presented at the meeting of the National Conference on Pediatric Psychology, New Orleans, LA.
- Ellingsen, K. E., Peterson, C., & Guskin, K. (2013, March). Examining Fidelity, Implementation and Effectiveness for Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) USA . In Ellingsen (chair) Evaluating fidelity, implementation, and effectiveness in early childhood intervention: The experiences of three national home visiting program models. Symposium at the meeting of the Children’s Mental Health Research and Policy Conference, Tampa, FL.
- Ellingsen, K. & Myers, L. (2013, April). Measuring parent engagement in early intervention programs. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Conference on Family Literacy, Louisville, KY.
- Ellingsen, K. & Wirtz, P. (2012, March). Are we asking the right questions? Evidence of effectiveness in early childhood home visiting programs. Paper presented at the meeting of the Children’s Mental Health, Policy, and Research Conference, Tampa, FL.
- Ellingsen, K. (2011, August). Classifying child health and disability across settings and around the world: Introducing developmental code sets from the WHO ICF-CY. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
- Gibson, K. & Ellingsen, K. (2016, April). Child Trauma: An Introduction to Five APA Supported Evidence Based Treatments. Presentation at the Regional Convention Florida Psychological Association, St Petersburg, FL.
Affiliations
- American Psychological Association (APA)
- International Society on Early Intervention (ISEI)
- Postpartum International Society (PSI)
- Florida Psychological Association (FPA)
- National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC)
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Get in touch
Kirsten Ellingsen, PhD, PMH-C
Sarasota, Florida: 2415 University Parkway, Building 3, Suite 219, Sarasota FL 34243
South Tampa, Florida: 3314 Henderson Blvd, Suite 305, Tampa FL 33609
(813)-388-8728
Connect
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Managing Anxiety
Anxiety is a normal and expected part of life. It keeps us safe when there is danger or a threat of danger. It occurs for common reasons at different developmental stages of life. Anxiety can also be a problem when it is frequent, exaggerated, and negatively affects functioning and participation in daily activities. Read more
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Autism Spectrum Disorders
Autism is now one of the most commonly diagnosed developmental disabilities in early childhood. It is estimated that about 1 in 59 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Read more
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Start with Breathing
Stress, anxiety, and anger can activate our fight or flight response. In this state our body becomes tense, our heart might beat fast, and breathing become shallow signaling that we are in danger. Helpful when a threat is real, not so helpful when it is a false alarm. Read more
Dr. Kirsten Ellingsen 