Dr. Sharon Murphy

Sharon Murphy

Dr. Sharon Murphy is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who has over 30 years experience working with children and adolescents.  As a pediatric neuropsychologist, she has special expertise in understanding the changes in brain function and psychological development that occur as children mature from infants to young adults.  She conducts specialized evaluations to reveal the distinctive strengths and challenges of children who have problems in areas such as attention/concentration, memory, organization, and learning and those experiencing emotional difficulties such as depression and anxiety.

Dr. Murphy’s  gentle, insightful, and encouraging manner is comforting to pre-teens and teens who attend therapy with her.  While providing therapy, Dr. Murphy continually looks for issues that may play a hand in a child’s problems.

Dr. Murphy has expertise in working with children who have medical or developmental issues that may contribute to school problems or emotional difficulties.  She also has a special interest in the neuropsychological influences on the development of healthy children and the challenges that they face, such as stress management, sleep habits, and the treatment of conditions like obesity.  She has dedicated her entire career to understanding children’s unique abilities and designing intervention plans to build on their strengths and support their healthy development.

She earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a specialization in neuropsychology from the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (formerly The Chicago Medical School) and completed a fellowship in pediatric neuropsychology at the University of Chicago. In addition to her expertise in medical and developmental neuropsychology, she also completed an advanced postdoctoral program in psychopharmacology and trained in current methods of contextual behavior therapy.

She has published research studies in the areas of neuropsychological assessment, brain development, and the effects of prenatal drug and alcohol use, and she co-authored a book chapter on the neuropsychological correlates of childhood epilepsy.

Dr. Murphy has a career that spans the fields of special education, medical issues and medication, and neuropsychology. Her work at Plum Tree is primarily spent in administering neuropsychological evaluations. Dr. Murphy helps children who have developmental or learning issues that are complicated or subtle and may not have been fully understood prior to her administering a neuropsychological evaluation for them.

Dr. Murphy is a clinical specialist at Plum Tree. She is called in to consult with our staff for some of the most complicated or difficult cases. She makes us all better.

She loves supporting the work that Plum Tree therapists do by evaluating children with issues that may be related to processing difficulties, medical/health problems, developmental trauma, perinatal risk factors, and medication effects.