I can illustrate this with an example: Let’s say that you bring your 8-year-old son to see me because he has recently been diagnosed by his primary care physician with ADHD. You are wanting to support him but he is not letting you help him with his reading or his homework. You are afraid that he is falling behind in school but you can’t seem to get him to open up and let you in. I would approach working with your child from a combination of play therapy, ADHD assessment measures and attention exercises. I would first build rapport through play and assess his attentional skills through observations and formalized assessment measures that help me better understand his areas of difficulty. In our work together, his dynamics with you will likely emerge with me, allowing me to help him “play through” and integrate the difficult feelings that are keeping you at arm’s length. I will also help him strengthen his attentional skills through specialized cognitive and body-based attentional games.

The example highlights how I would work with a specific case, but as mentioned above, every child is unique! Below are some tenants I keep in mind throughout my work with children.

My Approach

Play and Fun: Playing with children is speaking their language. Play in therapy is scientifically shown to be effective (and yes, it’s fun too). I find that many challenges children experience reveal themselves and can be worked through in play. Play is also an effective intervention because I find that if a child can feel like they are having fun in therapy, they are much more actively engaged in their healing process. My goal is that your child will grow, learn, heal and enjoy our time together in the process.

Holistic Health: Children are growing every day in many areas – their bodies, minds, emotions, spirits, relationships, behavior, learning and personalities. All of these are interconnected, and improving any of these areas will have a positive impact on others. My goal is to help your child strengthen each of these areas as a result of our work together.

Safety and Consistency: Children need emotionally safe and consistent relationships. It is my top priority to create a predictable and emotionally safe environment to help children be themselves. When a child feels safe, they show us what their world is like. Being allowed entry into this space is very special and substantially contributes to healing.

Teaching: The childhood years are filled with endless teachable moments. Just because a child has seen something or has been told something, it does not mean that they have learned the concept. As a former teacher, I understand the importance of presenting information so that children will really learn it. Whether your child is coming to therapy for support with a learning disability, social skills, emotions, sleeping, bed-wetting, relationships or self-regulation, it is important to help children gain new understandings that they can use throughout their lives.

Parent Collaboration: Parents have more influence over their child than anyone else. I work closely with the parents of child clients to help our work create a greater impact at home. This support is unique to each child but can include support with active listening, responding to behavioral challenges, skills for helping children with learning disabilities, and trouble-shooting just about anything else. Despite the many wonderful books on parenting, there is no perfect manual for each child. For this reason, I am available to schedule additional sessions for parents wanting to increase their effectiveness.

If terminology is helpful, the following have been especially influential for my theoretical/conceptual approach to therapy: attachment based, affective play therapy, family systems, educational therapy and educational therapy.

We can discuss what kind of support your child is needing during a free phone or video consultation.