Little Dove

06/15/2026

This week I had the joy of spending time with the team at Hembree Bell Law, PLLC talking about one of the hardest conversations a parent ever starts: telling their kids about a divorce. Thank you all for having me — and for caring so much about the children behind every case. 💛

One thing I shared that I want every parent to hear: the divorce itself isn't what determines how your kids do. What matters most is how much conflict they see, the parenting they get from each of you, and how steady daily life stays — and you have real say over all three.

I put the heart of the talk into a new blog post: the three things every child needs to hear, how to plan the conversation, and what's normal in the weeks after. Read it here at www.littledovepsychology.com

06/09/2026

Y'all, I get this question almost every week.
"Dr. Kroll, my kid is eight. There is no way she's going to sit on Zoom for an hour. How is this even supposed to work?"

I hear you, Mama. It's a fair worry.

Most parents picture some stiff little video call where their child stares at the ceiling, fidgets through the whole thing, and walks away having gotten exactly nothing out of it. They picture themselves hovering nearby, not sure when to step in or step back. They picture the wifi cutting out at the worst moment, the whole thing falling apart.

I promise you, friend. That is not what virtual therapy with a kid actually looks like.
Here's how almost every session goes with us:
First 10 minutes: you, me, and your child on camera together. You share what you noticed this week. Your child weighs in. We agree on what to focus on today.
Middle 30 to 40 minutes: the clinical work with your child. Cognitive behavioral therapy, DBT skills, exposure-based work, processing - whatever the treatment plan calls for. The actual therapy happens here.

Final 10 minutes: you and your child back on together. We summarize what we worked on, we agree on the home practice for the week, and I make sure you know how to support those skills outside of session.

You are involved at the beginning and end of every single session. That's not me being polite. That's by design. Pediatric mental health work that leaves parents out of the process underperforms, every time, compared to work that brings parents in. We built our whole session structure around that truth.

And honestly? A whole lot of pediatric therapy works better on screen than in person. Anxious kids settle faster in their own homes. Kids in shared custody don't miss sessions because of which house they're at this week. Working parents don't lose half a day to a thirty-five-minute appointment. The therapy that actually helps your child is the therapy your child actually attends.

If you've been putting therapy off because the logistics felt impossible - the schedule, the drive, the missed work, the wrangling - this is the format built for exactly that. We see you. And we're glad you're here.

Read the full post: littledovepsychology.com/blog-virtual-therapy-kids
Virtual sessions across Texas and 42 PSYPACT states. Same-week intake. Evening and weekend appointments. Free 15-minute consultations available throughout the week.

06/03/2026

"Trust me, we're making progress" isn't good enough.

Most parents who come to us have tried therapy before. Or their older kid did. Or a friend's child. And the story tends to sound the same: a few months of sessions, a vague sense that something was happening, and no real way to know whether the work was making a measurable difference.

That uncertainty is the most expensive part of pediatric mental health care. Not the session fees. The not-knowing.

At Little Dove Psychology, we measure every client. Standardized symptom tracking at intake, then again every four to six weeks throughout treatment. The scores are reviewed with the family. The trajectory shapes what we do next.
This is called measurement-based care, and the research is clear: clinicians who track outcomes catch ineffective treatments in the first two months. Clinicians who do not measure often catch them at month six, eight, or never.

We do not promise specific outcomes. No good clinician should. What we promise is that the work will be tracked, the data will be honest, and the decisions about what to do next will be informed by something real.

Read the full post on what measurement-based care looks like in our practice: littledovepsychology.com/blog-measurement-based-care

Free 15-minute consultations available throughout the week. Virtual sessions across Texas and 42 PSYPACT states. Same-week intake. Evening and weekend appointments.

05/26/2026

Parents tell us the same thing over and over:
"I want to get my kid into therapy, but I can't take off work every week."
So we built our practice around that reality.

Most pediatric mental health practices keep 9-to-5 office hours. For families with two working parents, hourly jobs, or shared custody schedules, that often means therapy gets started and then dropped before the work has a chance to take hold.
Here's what most parents don't know: the modalities we use to help kids are cumulative. Cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure-based work, DBT skills, parent coaching, all of it builds over weeks. When a kid attends three of four scheduled sessions, the skills compound. When they attend one of four, you're often starting over each visit.

In other words, the best therapy for your kid is the one they can actually attend.
That's why we offer evening and weekend appointments. Virtual sessions across Texas and 41 PSYPACT states, so kids can attend from either parent's home, after school, or on a Saturday morning. Same-week intake. Private-pay with superbills.
If your child has been on a waitlist, or you've been delaying because of scheduling, we'd love to help.

Free 15-minute consultations available throughout the week. Read the full post at www.littledovepsychology.com

05/20/2026

05/17/2026

A welcome from our Founder!

05/13/2026

You've been bracing before your kid even answers a question. You're not failing. You're in transition, which is harder than anyone tells you.

New guide for Austin parents trying to figure out what to do next about family conflict that's grown bigger than they can handle.

Free to read. Free consult if you want to talk.

https://littledovepsychology.com/blog-family-therapy-austin

05/11/2026

Little Dove Psychology has officially organized our work around four areas where we see kids, teens, and college students need the most support:
→ Anxiety
→ Depression
→ Family conflict and communication
→ DBT-informed emotion regulation

Why these four? Because they're what actually walks through the door. The kid who can't sleep before school. The teen who's stopped wanting to do the things she loved. The family that can't have one conversation without it turning into a fight. The young person whose feelings are bigger than they know how to hold.

We're a team of three licensed clinicians serving Texas and 41 PSYPACT states virtually. Founded and led by Dr. Kristin Kroll, PhD. Private-pay, with superbills available.If any of this sounds like the support your family is looking for, we'd love to talk. Free 15-minute consultation:
https://littledovepsychology.com

05/04/2026

First thing I learned working in pediatric cardiology:

A 7-year-old about to have open-heart surgery can be calmer
than a 7-year-old about to ride the school bus.

Same nervous system. Wildly different reactions.

Why?

Anxiety isn't about how scary the thing is.
It's about whether the kid believes they can handle the thing.

The surgery kid has been prepared. They've met the surgeon,
practiced holding the oxygen mask, walked the route from the
car to the OR doors. Every scary step has been walked through —
out loud, with specifics, more than once.

The school bus kid has been told "you'll be fine" five mornings
in a row.

This is the thing most parenting advice gets wrong. Anxious kids
don't need you to convince them the scary thing isn't scary.
They need you to walk them through the scary thing until it feels
navigable.

I spent years at Children's Wisconsin with kids who had every
reason to be terrified — and many of them weren't, because their
parents and care teams did the unglamorous work of preparation.

Built Little Dove Psychology around the same idea. Anxiety treatment
isn't about talking kids out of their worry. It's about building the
belief, in their bodies, that they can handle what comes.

If your kid is stuck in the "what if" loop, the free toolkit walks
through starting points — 10 signs, 7 scripts, 3 exercises.
Link in bio.

04/30/2026

Your kid says "I don't want to go to school."

You say: "You have to go." / "You'll be fine." / "It's one day, please."

They dig in. You escalate. You're both in tears by 7:45.

Try this instead:

"Tell me the part that feels hardest."

That's it.

Not "what's wrong?" (too big). Not "why?" (sounds like an interrogation).

"The part that feels hardest" forces them to locate the anxiety in
a specific thing — the bus, a classmate, the first 10 minutes of math.
Once you know the specific thing, you can actually do something
about the specific thing.

And 9 times out of 10, the part that feels hardest isn't school itself.
It's the worry that something will happen and they'll have to handle
it alone.

More scripts like this in the free toolkit — link in bio.