About Us

We are a small, warm and caring practice that offers personalized psychological services to children, adolescents, and adults, including individual, parenting, couples, and family work.  We strive to integrate our years of experience, traditional and innovative methods, and contemporary research to develop interventions that work for your specific situation.  Our goal is to work with you — and family members, if appropriate — to give you tools to resolve the problem and cope with life changes or chronic challenges more effectively.

We provide an eclectic array of therapy techniques to address emotional, behavioral, learning and developmental issues across the life cycle spectrum from infancy and pediatric care to adult care.  We specialize in providing services to families contemplating or undergoing all phases of the divorce process.  We also specialize in educational and psychological assessment and advocacy.   Click to find out more information about Dr. Bardenstein, Mrs. Berger, or Mrs. Wieder. A more detailed description of these services is available in the Services Provided  section of this website.

Dr. Karen Bardenstein PHD.

img Dr. Bardenstein is a licensed clinical psychologist whose 30 years of experience includes working with children, adolescents and families, as well as adults. Her areas of specialty include: toileting and sleeping challenges, depression, anxiety and disruptive behaviors, personality disorders, divorce-related transitions, relationship problems, obsessive-compulsive disorders and general challenges of parenting. In addition to her training as a child, family and adult therapist, she also specializes in psychological testing and personality assessment for children and adults. Dr. Bardenstein’s forensic services include child custody evaluations, parenting-coordination, and mediation. She provides support for individuals navigating the court system during divorce. She has met the Ohio Supreme Court requirements to serve as a divorce mediator and parenting-coordinator. In addition, Dr. Bardenstein completed Level 1 Gottman training in couples therapy.

Dr. Bardenstein graduated from Duke University and received her doctorate in psychology from the University of Michigan. She is an adjunct assistant professor in the departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University where she supervises clinical psychology graduate students. She is a co-author of Personality Disorders in Children and Adolescents (2000) and Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy: Science and Art (2005). She has also published articles on Narcissistic Character Disorder in children, and gender differences in psychiatric disorders. She has regularly presented her work at the Society for Personality Assessment meetings and given lectures for the Cleveland Bar Association. Her previous positions include staff psychologist at Lovinger and Associates, The Center for the Family in Transition (Dr. Judith Wallerstein, director), Comprehensive Psychiatric Services, and Chestnut Lodge.

Dr. Bardenstein is fluent in Spanish and offers bilingual services. Click here to find out more


Marilyn S. Berger MA, ED. M

img Mrs. Berger has worked as a therapist with children from preschool through college age — and their parents — for twenty years. She has broad experience in a wide range of toddler, child, adolescent, and young adult issues, as well as in counselling parents of children of all ages.

Mrs. Berger specializes in educational evaluation and advocacy, including: observation of the child in his/her functional environments; psychoeducational testing; identifying the child’s cognitive and academic strengths and weaknesses; assessing for learning disabilities and ADHD; working with the school to implement appropriate interventions; training the parent to advocate for the child and the child to advocate for him/herself; continuing to work with the child and parents to understand and manage the child’s learning profile and related issues.

Another major area of expertise that Mrs. Berger has developed is working with divorcing families, including working as a: divorce mediator; parenting coordinator; and child therapist. As such, she has fulfilled the requirements of the state of Ohio to work as a divorce mediator and as a parenting coordinator. Mrs. Berger assists Dr. Bardenstein in conducting custody evaluations.

After graduating Princeton University in the first class to accept women, Mrs. Berger went on to earn her Master’s in Education (Ed.M.) at Rutgers University and her Master’s in Clinical Psychology (M.A.) at Cleveland State University. She worked as an educational administrator before beginning her career as a therapist.

Mrs. Berger is supervised by Karen Bardenstein, Ph.D.  They have worked together for twenty years. Click here to find out more

Miki Wieder, MA.

img Mrs. Wieder has 35 years of experience working as an individual adult, couples, and group therapist. She specializes in providing quality care to people suffering from a wide range of sexual and relationship problems, as well as women’s issues. She has experience in treating anxiety and depressive disorders, coping with loss, and other life stressors.

Mrs. Wieder graduated from Cleveland State University with a Master of Arts degree in Clinical/Community Psychology. She has postgraduate training in sexuality from University Hospitals and The Center for Marital and Sexual Health. She has been involved in sexuality research for pharmaceutical companies. She has presented at conferences including The Society for Sexual Therapy and Research where she is a longstanding member. Additionally, she was the founder of the committee for the development of “A Life Values Curriculum: Health Education for (Orthodox) Jewish Day Schools”.

She was previously employed at DELR and Associates (a comprehensive outpatient mental health center); The Center for Marital and Sexual Health (a multidisciplinary outpatient mental health center specializing in the evaluation, treatment, and research of relationship and sexual problems); and Mark Lovinger, Ph.D. and Associates (a multidisciplinary outpatient mental health center) and the Sexual Dysfunction Clinic of University Hospitals. Mrs. Wieder is supervised by Karen Bardenstein, Ph.D.