​The Anxiety Treatment Center of Greenwich was founded by Jill Vaughan Tesei and Maryellen Pachler Kennell. Read below to learn more about their experience and the background that informs their expertise.​

​Maryellen Pachler Kennell, APRN ​is a board certified Nurse Practitioner in child and adolescent psychiatry. She received her nursing, master’s and post master’s degrees from Yale University. Prior to entering private practice, Maryellen worked at the Yale Child Study Center as a clinical researcher. As a member of the Research Unit in Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP), her primary research included the development and testing of psychopharmacological treatments for children with serious psychiatric disorders. Her experience also includes assessment and treatment of Depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Tic Disorders and Trichotillomania.  Additionally, Maryellen has experience in Behavioral Parent Training and Parent Guidance around developmental expectations. Maryellen specializes in the Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of anxiety disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in children and adolescents. Maryellen was the lead clinician in a study that tested the efficacy of a cognitive-behavioral treatment manual for anxiety in children and adolescents in a primary care setting. Furthermore, she works with high school and college athletes in overcoming performance anxiety. She has co-authored over ten publications and has lectured both nationally and internationally. Maryellen is a lecturer at the Yale University School of Nursing.

Jill Vaughan Tesei, APRN is a board certified Family Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner from Yale University. Additionally, she holds Master’s degrees in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapies from Lesley University. Jill has advanced specialty training in child and adolescent psychopharmacology, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Behavioral Parent Training from the Yale Child Study Center. In addition, Jill has received clinical training in cognitive therapy from the Beck Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. She has received clinical training from leading experts in the field of child and adolescent anxiety disorders, including Philip Kendall, Tamar Chansky, John March, Robert Friedman, etc. Jill specializes in the Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of child and adolescent Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, separation and social anxiety, phobias and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. She also is trained in Habit Reversal Therapy for tic disorders and Trichotillomania. Jill has nearly twenty years experience in child mental health, including inpatient, adolescent residential treatment, partial hospital and psychiatric emergency evaluations. She has worked in private practice for the past eight years and is a clinical professor of child psychiatry at the Yale University School of Nursing.