Dr. Brooke Hillary is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in behavioral medicine. Her expertise is diagnosing and treating psychological conditions that often have underlying medical ideology. Causes can range from anxiety, depression and adjustment disorders to dealing with physical problems such as severe trauma, stroke, sudden paralysis or cancer. She works both in hospitals and also maintains a private practice where she is able to provide follow up care to patients she has treated in the hospital. Most of her career has been spent helping children and their families deal with chronic, critical, or terminal illness. She counsels parents of seriously ill children, or children with seriously ill parents or close family members. She also provides guidance to parents and children with eating disorders, behavioral problems, and drug issues.
After receiving her doctorate at Hofstra University, she completed a two-year fellowship in behavioral medicine and pediatric behavioral medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. While there she worked at Ryder Trauma Center with burn patients in the pediatric ICU and Neonatal ICU and implemented the first pediatric pain management program working with HIV and aids patients and their families. Some of her work involved end of life counseling to parents with critically ill children..
Since then she has worked at numerous South Florida hospitals including re-hab hospitals where she has headed psychology services and implemented pediatric pain management programs. Dr. Hillary provides consultation liaison services between all other medical services. This makes it easier for parents to gain access to a full range of medical help and better understand their child’s case.
Dr. Hillary is trained in and provides assessments of children, including neuro-psychological assessment, psycho educational assessment, and assessment of gifted children. She also specializes in treating abused children. She writes and lectures on the subject and is a testifying psychologist at court. In the adult population Dr. Hillary helps women deal with issues specific to them such as breast cancer, cervical cancer and as victims of domestic violence.
