Cameron Gates LISW-CP

I have extensive experience supporting children and young adults with ADHD across multiple care settings, including Epworth Children’s Home, public school environments, and specialized mental-health transition programs for young men. My work has included providing individualized behavioral interventions, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, and helping clients build executive-functioning, emotional-regulation, and social-skills capacities.

I have extensive experience helping children, adolescents, and young adults manage anger and develop healthier emotional-regulation skills across multiple settings, including Epworth Children’s Home, public school systems, and a young men’s mental-health transitions home. My work has included counseling clients who struggle with chronic irritability, explosive outbursts, difficulty managing frustration, and anger connected to trauma, anxiety, or depression.

I have significant experience working with children, adolescents, and young adults struggling with anxiety across diverse settings, including Epworth Children’s Home, public schools, and a mental-health transitions home for young men. In these roles, I have provided counseling and case management for clients facing generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic symptoms, and anxiety related to trauma or major life transitions—often accompanied by depression or other mood concerns.

I frequently utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in my clinical work, drawing on its structured, evidence-based framework to help clients understand the connection between their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. My approach focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking patterns, increasing emotional awareness, and developing practical coping strategies that clients can apply in real-time situations. I integrate CBT techniques such as cognitive restructuring and behavior activation.

I regularly incorporate Motivational Interviewing (MI) into my clinical practice, using its collaborative and client-centered framework to help individuals explore ambivalence, strengthen internal motivation, and move toward meaningful change. My approach emphasizes empathy, reflective listening, and eliciting clients’ own reasons for growth rather than imposing direction. I draw on MI techniques such as open-ended questioning, affirmations, summarizing, and change talk to support clients.