About Us
Jaqui R. Otto, Ph.D.
Hello and welcome to The Oak Inside. I am a Licensed Psychologist and owner of The Oak Inside. I launched The Oak Inside in 2016 with the express purpose of providing accessible, thorough, high quality evaluation and evidence-based counseling services to the North Texas area.
I earned my Bachelors Degree from Texas A&M University and my Masters and Ph.D from The University of Utah in Educational Psychology with emphasis in neuropsychological evaluation and behavioral intervention. I completed my Clinical Internship at Father Flanagan’s Boystown in Omaha, Nebraska. Dissertation research was on behavioral social skills instruction and parent training
I hold a license as a Psychologist in the state of Texas and am a Nationally Certified School Psychologist with over 20 years of experience in private practice and public/private school settings. I specialize in psychological, neuropsychological, and educational evaluations for children and adolescents. I like to work from a strengths-based perspective in order to help families understand the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional factors that impact daily functioning and I believe that from this understanding families can learn how to celebrate and encourage their child’s strengths while using those strengths to build up and accommodate areas of challenge. My therapeutic work focuses on helping children and adolescents build emotional regulation, social skills, and problem solving abilities for daily life. I have a special interest in helping children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders improve their social competence through evidence-based social skills instruction.
Gina L. Pearson, LPA
Gina is a Licensed Psychological Associate, practicing under the supervision of Dr. Otto, providing psychotherapy and psychological assessment services. Gina is dedicated to establishing collaborative, secure, and consistent therapeutic relationships. Gina has a strong psychodynamic foundation with an emphasis on attachment relationships and relational perspectives, viewing difficulties within the broader context of a person’s life. She strives to empathize with individual perspectives while offering additional or alternative perspectives to consider. Her approach is strength based and aims to empower parents or caregivers with the tools to advocate for their child’s (and their own) biological, psychological, emotional, and relational needs. Gina listens to each person’s dynamic story helping to organize, clarify, understand, and integrate emotions and experiences into an individual’s self-concept. She works within the frame of this co-created understanding to inform future experience, direction, and growth while focusing on fostering resiliency, wellbeing, and healthy adjustment in all aspects of development, self, relationships, academics, careers, and family.
Gina’s education and training were achieved in Michigan, graduating from Madonna University in 2014 with her Bachelors of Science in Mental Health Psychology & Graduate Certificate in Addiction Studies. She continued on to graduate in 2016 with her Masters of Science in Clinical Psychology from MU, wherein she completed her practicum training in psychotherapy and comprehensive psychological assessment at the Madonna University Psychological Services clinic (MUPS), providing services to college students and the broader community. Gina obtained her post-graduate supervised experience and practiced full-time at the master’s level prior to relocating to Texas in 2019. After settling into life in Texas, Gina became licensed as an LPA by the Texas Board of Examiners of Psychologists.
Gina primarily works with:
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Gina also provides comprehensive psychological assessment, psychoeducational evaluations, personality assessment, and differential diagnosis evaluations with children, adolescents, and adults.
The LPA credential is granted by the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, to individuals who hold a master’s degree in psychology & meet requirements defined in applicable laws, board rules, and regulations. Licensure as an LPA requires similarly rigorous requisites as a Ph.D./PsyD Licensed Psychologist, but there are some key differences described by the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists in the document linked below.
Carrie J. Moore, MSSA, LCSW-S
Child and Family Mental Health Therapist
As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Carrie focuses on helping clients and families find their way through life’s struggles. Whether the transition of a new sibling, separating from a caregiver, grieving of a loved one, or adjusting to a new move, Carrie supports and encourages children and parents with evidence-based solutions and approaches. She loves to teach children strategies for emotional regulation, focus, problem solving, and confidence building. Carrie’s therapeutic philosophy can be described as developmental, cognitive behavioral, and solution focused. Carrie is continually in awe of children and the ways in which they interact with their world. She hopes that she can pass on strategies and find solutions in order to help children become more well adjusted, whole hearted individuals that are able to cope with whatever life throws their way.
Carrie’s education in the field of mental health began with her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from DePauw University in Indiana. She received her graduate training in Clinical Social Work from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Carrie’s internships and focus in training were on early childhood mental health and parent coaching as well as trauma and attachment in the foster care and adoption settings. Carrie has been licensed to provide mental health counseling since 2005 and has worked in various settings from schools, in-home services, to hospital-based care. Carrie has recently joined private practice to better meet the needs of both her clients and her family.
As “Mama” to two elementary-age children she understands the difficulties in putting parenting theories into real life practice. On a regular basis she has to put her own advice to use to survive the chaos of family life. Parenting is not for the faint of heart and pushes buttons you never even knew you had! Carrie hopes to help parents meet their needs while also meeting the needs of their children. By engaging with the entire family system, Carrie hopes to meet the needs of both parents and their children.
Carrie primarily works with:
- Preschool Age (Birth – 5yrs)
- Children (5-9yrs)
- Pre-teens (10-12yrs)
- Adolescents (13-17yrs)
- Families/Parents/Caregivers
Areas of Interest:
- Transition Concerns (divorce/grief/moving/new sibling/school)
- Parent Coaching
- Relationships/Attachment
- Trauma and Grief
- Foster Care/Adoption
- Anxiety (separation/generalized)
- Emotional/Behavioral Regulation
- Interpersonal Relationships/Attachment
- In Utero Drug/Alcohol exposure
Alaina Kroes, Psy.D
Alaina Kroes, Psy.D., is a Licensed Psychologist. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in psychology with an emphasis in chemistry and sociology from Alverno College in Wisconsin. She went on to attend the Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology for her Masters and Doctorate Degrees in Clinical Psychology. She completed her internship at the Department of Corrections. She is licensed as a psychologist in both Texas and Wisconsin.
She works with children of all ages and enjoys conducting comprehensive psychological evaluations. She has an interest in completing evaluations for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (and is trained on the administration of the ADOS-2), and bonding assessments. Her experience includes providing therapy and psychological evaluations to adults, adolescents, and children in forensic and community-based settings. During her doctoral training, she provided therapy to both children and adults. She is comfortable and competent in working with a wide range of presenting concerns. She strives to assist others in understanding how mental health impacts their daily life while providing strategies to improve functioning. She enjoys seeing how an individual grows and progresses in therapy. Her research interests include the parent-child relationship, and she completed her dissertation on this subject. She has experience conducting psychological evaluations for diagnostic clarification, parenting capacities, learning difficulties, competency, behavioral disturbances, and emotional disturbances. Her interests outside of the office include being outdoors, spending time with family, and reading.