Sheryl Ziegler, Psy.D.
Founder. Advocate. Innovator.
The Big Picture
Dr. Ziegler, aka Dr. Z, proudly founded The Child & Family Therapy Center at Lowry (TCFTCL), a private group practice collective, in 2006. She is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in the state of Colorado and a member of The Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (PSYPACT) which is an interstate compact designed to facilitate the practice of telepsychology and the practice of temporary face to face, in person psychology across state boundaries. For an up to date complete list of participating states, please see the PSYCPACT map. Dr. Ziegler is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Colorado Association for Play Therapy. Dr. Ziegler specializes in anxiety, depression, chronic stress, trauma, divorce, co-parenting, mood dysregulation, and maternal mental health. Her clients are typically tweens and teens in middle school, high school and college. Her primary treatment approach utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Play Therapy, Systemic Family Therapy and Mindfulness techniques. Dr. Ziegler incorporates many factors when working with children and families including nutrition, sleep, exercise, social supports, academic functioning, physical health, and family history.
In December 2022, Dr. Ziegler was honored to be invited to speak at The Evolution of Psychotherapy conference where she was acknowledged as a luminary in the field of psychotherapy and shared a stage with the most prominent and influential theorists, researchers and clinicians of our time.
A Little About Me
In addition to managing TCFTCL, Dr. Ziegler, or Dr. Z as she is called, is the International Latino Parenting Book of the Year award recipient and bestselling author of Mommy Burnout: how to reclaim your life and raise healthier children in the process. She is a Tedx speaker of Why Moms Are Miserable, which has over one million views. Dr. Z is regular local and national media contributor, board member, Girl Scouts leader, Girls on the Run coach and middle school cross country coach and advocate for children.
I Like to Talk and Teach
Dr. Z founded and teaches a class called Start with the Talk® which is a mother-daughter talk that was developed to helps girls and their parent or caregiver prepare for the transition for puberty and the physical, social and emotional changes to come. Girls are typically 9-13 years of age in 4th through 7th grade.
Highlights
Dr. Z has appeared as a mental health expert in hundreds of news related shows including The Today Show with Megyn Kelly, The Katie Couric Show, The Jenny McCarthy Show, The Doctors, CNN, CNBC, Headline News Weekend Express with Lynn Smith, Morning Express with Robin Meade, and more. Articles she has contributed to have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, TIME, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Real Simple, Huffington Post and more. Dr. Z is currently the NBC 9News Parenting and Mental Health Expert on the series Mental Health and Me.
Her book has been translated into several different languages. Dr. Z has a chapter on guilt in the Harvard Business Review Press book series, Advice for Working Moms. She is an international speaker in countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Spain, Germany and Australia. For more about Dr. Ziegler, her podcast, book, course, blog and more check out her website.
Approach to Treatment
“I aim to strengthen families through insight, education and integration of life experiences. Psychological treatment is centered around increasing attachment, bonding and affect regulation. My approaches include a Cognitive Behavioral approach as well as a Psychodynamic approach to treatment.”
Dr. Ziegler believes first and foremost in a systemic approach to treating children and families. She addresses issues surrounding nutrition, exercise, prenatal history, early childhood history, physical and mental health family history, support systems, medications and more. Her approach is strength based and family centered meaning that all the focus is not on what is going wrong but rather building upon what is going right. Her personal style is honest, dynamic and gets to the root of the challenges in a direct way. Her techniques come from evidenced based practices from several health-related fields including brain based research of development and trauma and the impact these life events have on all aspects of the life span. She also incorporates evidence-based practices for achieving mind and body health through thoughts, insight, awareness, relaxation and wellness.
Her current specific areas of expertise are in treating children and families who are dealing with anxiety, depression, encopresis, giftedness and divorce. She is mainly seeing children ages 10 and up. Dr. Ziegler also takes on a limited number of medical trauma cases referred by The Children’s Hospital to support both children and their families while they are experiencing chronic illness and or medical conditions.
Dr. Ziegler spends approximately half of her clinical time working with children and their families and the other half working with adults and couples. She sees individuals and couples on issues related to parenting, marital stress, family of origin issues and general life concerns. She also works with couples who are going through separation or high conflict divorce to provide co-parenting counseling. Dr. Ziegler also spends time every month doing school observations and reports at the pre-school and elementary levels for parents who have educational concerns. She does cognitive psychological evaluations for children ages 5-17. She is an expert court witness in the state of Colorado in the areas of child development, trauma, effects of divorce, family dynamics, attachment, parenting and systems of care.
Prior Clinical Experience
Dr. Ziegler started her career in treating children who have experienced trauma, neglect and abuse. She was the Intake Coordinator at Berkshire Farm Center in Canaan, NY. She was a Clinical Coordinator at Littler Center in Colorado and then did her APA approved doctoral internship at The Astor Home for Children in Rhinebeck, NY.
After graduating, Dr. Ziegler was the Clinical Director of Namaqua Center, a Residential Treatment Center for Children ages 3-12 in the Denver Metro area and a sister program of Touchstone Health Partners. In this capacity she oversaw the therapy that the children received and provided weekly consultation to the clinical, administrative and education teams. Namaqua Center was on the cutting edge of innovative treatments for children and their families who have endured significant trauma. Dr. Ziegler continues to provide clinical supervision to students from local universities, which may include live observation, expert court testimony, play therapy, psychological evaluations, interactional assessments, training and consultation. She has been working with high needs children and families for over 20 years.
Dr. Ziegler divides her professional time treating clients, expanding mental health reach through media platforms and presenting clinical trainings to parents and professionals. Dr. Ziegler has been an affiliate professor at the The University of Northern Colorado. She has taught Child Play Therapy to doctoral level students. Dr. Ziegler provided consultation to CereScan, now CereHealth, a high definition diagnostic neuroimaging company, as a senior adviser. In this capacity she was responsible for bridging physicians with the capabilities of brain diagnostics to better aid in evaluation, symptom diagnosis and care.
Board Experience
Dr. Z served on The Tennyson Center for Children's Board of Director as Program Chair. She is currently part of their residential task force. Prior to this, Dr. Ziegler was appointed to the SCL Health Board of Directors at Mount Saint Vincent, a residential and day treatment facility in Colorado serving abused, neglected and traumatized children ages 5 and up. She has also served the board of directors of Bright by Three and Bright by Text. Bright by Three equips families with tools to promote their child's healthy development through the most pivotal stages of growth and during the earliest years of life.