Welcome to Mind and Child!

Welcome!

We are Dr. Erin Avirett and Dr. Jordana Mortimer. We are Licensed Psychologists with specializations in School Neuropsychology. We each have private practices in different parts of Texas, primarily working with children and families. We also, just so happen, to be best friends...

We met in graduate school over 15 years ago. In the midst of studying, getting married (within two months of one another), and desperately trying to find parents who would let us test our emerging skills on their guinea pigs, err...children, our bond grew. We busied ourselves with research projects, graduate school “hoops,” and dissertations. We also dreamed of opening a business together. During our last year of graduate school, after returning home from presenting at a conference in California, we annoyed an entire plane-full of passengers with belly laughter at our latest dream. We would one day find a way to open a private practice together, where we could work directly with children and their parents on behavioral issues. The best name we could derive on the spot: B.R.I.C.K. House (Behavioral Rehabilitation Institute for Children….and Kids).

We momentarily forgot about this whim, as we each soon successfully defended our dissertations (on the same day) and graduated (on the same day). Erin had her first baby, Jude, four days after graduation. Six weeks later, Erin moved back to her hometown, leaving us 350 miles apart. Jordana had her first baby, Evelyn, the following year. We each continued working in school districts, universities, and eventually, we each had our own private practices. And, we continued having babies. Erin’s Samuel  was next, followed by Jordana’s August. Erin’s Gwendolyn is the baby of the bunch.

Miraculously, if anything, our friendship grew stronger and stronger over the next decade. Although the trials and stresses of graduate school were bonding, the real-life trials of making and raising our humans, while simultaneously making and raising our own businesses, was even more so. Our phone calls went from, “OMG, I’m stressing, I don’t know if I can get this paper done in time” to, “Remember when we used to be so stressed over tests and thought our life was sooooo hard? That was nothing!”

We talked daily about work; both the successes and hardships we faced in our clinical practices.  We are both primarily “testing psychologists,” which means that children get referred to us, typically after years of struggles and AFTER a significant problem has arisen. We both found a passion for helping families to fine-tune exactly what is going on and giving parents tools for how to help. Being moms ourselves was also critical. We knew how difficult being a parent in the real world is, and, how parents need functional, implementable tools to use in even the most stressful of moments.

What we’ve learned is that there is a significant number of research-based parenting skills that we don’t just want the parents in our practices to use, we want EVERY parent to try them. 

More than that: what if we could get these strategies out to parents BEFORE? Before they ever make the call to the child psychologist…

And that is where the idea for Mind + Child, and, our ‘Parenting 101’ video course, was born. It was our original “B.R.I.C.K. House” dream incarnate (just more functional and with a much better name).

If you haven't already, check out the free video from our course, "Love, Like, Enjoy" here:  Watch Free Video from Course

We will also be bringing more content to the blog, so, stick around!

-Erin and Jordana