Psychologist and Therapist in Murray, Utah Nicole Medina-Salvatore, Psychologist

Dr. Nicole Medina-Salvatore’s specialties include psychological testing/neuropsychological testing, trauma, attachment issues, neurodiverse individuals, suicidality, Borderline Personality Disorder, women’s issues, and family therapy for clients ages 0 to 99, especially for Asian Americans and Latinx populations. She is a member of the LGBTQ+ Affirming Psychotherapist Guild of Utah and strives to provide radical acceptance to everyone and anyone that she meets. Dr. Medina-Salvatore believes in working collaboratively with her clients, attending to their individual needs, goals, desires, and unique cultural background. For individual therapy with adults and adolescents, she utilizes Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy (TLDP), Relational Cultural Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Whenever Dr. Medina-Salvatore works with children, she knows that she is not only working with the child, but with the child’s family, school, and support systems. This is why Dr. Medina-Salvatore typically engages families in bi-weekly family therapy sessions, or if the child is younger than 10, parenting therapy sessions. Her family therapy sessions are not parent-child meetings, but rather utilize Functional Family Therapy (FFT), an Evidence-Based form of family therapy that improves familial relationships and functioning. Dr. Medina-Salvatore approaches parenting therapy using concepts from evidence-based practices such as The Incredible Years, Parenting with Love and Logic, and concepts from Daniel Siegel’s work on gentle parenting/mindful parenting with a continual emphasis on predictability, stability, and behavioral interventions when needed. Dr. Medina-Salvatore is also a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), which means that she is an approved therapist for children of divorced or separated individuals, as well as these individuals themselves, who are looking for an AFCC therapist. When working with children individually, Dr. Medina-Salvatore is certified in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), is trained in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Dr. Gary Landreth’s Child Centered Play Therapy, and Sand Play Therapy. With very young children (ages 0-5), she also uses Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). Prior to becoming a psychologist, Dr. Medina-Salvatore had the honor of working as in-home behavior therapist for children and adolescents on the Autism Spectrum for three years prior to graduate school. This allowed her unique insight into how families of neurodiverse children function, as well as how to best support neurodiverse individuals in a positive, sensitive manner. Further, throughout her career, Dr. Medina-Salvatore has gained extensive experience in teaching parenting classes for parents of neurodiverse individuals, social skills groups, and in supporting families in navigating the multiple systems, such as schools, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, and others that come with having or being a neurodiverse individual. In her spare time, Dr. Medina-Salvatore enjoys cooking, trying new restaurants, hiking, and hot yoga. The best part of her day, however, is getting to be with and enjoy her two biological children, three stepchildren, and her loving husband. To her, family is a highly important value and, as such, prefers to be with her family as much as possible.