We believe that all humans have the capacity for expressing and understanding emotions and will do so when they feel safe and secure in their environment. Social and family environments, as well as early experiences, are very important in the development of a young person’s personality and the lens through which they view the world. When we work with any individual, regardless of age, background, or circumstance, it is our goal to understand their story in the context of their life through whatever medium they choose to express themselves. This may mean we use talk therapy, sand therapy, expressive arts therapy, or a combination of all of these. Most of all, you should feel heard, safe and respected to establish a healing relationship in therapy. Therapy isn’t and shouldn’t be easy. It is sometimes intensely painful work that might feel very unpleasant at times. It is counterintuitive, but that is actually a good sign. Movement of any type is usually a good thing in therapy.
Children often show you rather than tell you how they feel. This is because of children’s cognitive and language development. If you think back to your own childhood, you likely have a memory of playing things that were happening in your environment (i.e. playing house, dress-up, mimicking movies or sporting events). In the playroom, toys allow children to say what they cannot say with words. Just as adults communicate through speaking in talk therapy, children communicate through playing in play therapy. Play therapy allows a child to release feelings and concerns while the play therapist reflects these to the child so that they feel heard and understood. Play therapy can help translate what your child is feeling and experiencing in order to give you tools to more effectively act as the secure base in your child’s life at home. Like talk therapy, play therapy is confidential. We will not give you a play-by-play of what your child did in therapy. Instead, we will give you overarching themes of what we see in your child’s play so that you can better understand or respond to their inner-world. At the onset of therapy, we will set goals for your child and we will periodically assess your child’s progress. We will meet to discuss your child’s progress once a month.
While individual therapy for your child is highly beneficial, greater change comes when parents and caregivers learn how to be the therapeutic agent in their child’s life. Ultimately, we see your child for one hour of their lives per week, while you are with them for the other 167 hours in a week. In parent/caregiver and child therapy, we gain a better snapshot of the dynamics between you and your child in order to create a more functional and thereby, healing relationship. Children and parents may play, use games, write, talk, paint, use sand tray, art, and other means to allow for creative expression of experiences, feelings, and needs. Through this work, we then guide parents to learn (or re-learn) how to facilitate an environment in which their child or teenager can feel heard, safe, respected, valued and cherished.
Oftentimes, when a child or parent or sibling is struggling, it is a symptom of a struggle in the entire family system. Family systems work as some of the most powerful to facilitate healing with children and teens. Family therapy can help you and your family (family of choice or family by blood) understand one another better and learn how to better communicate. In family therapy work, we use expressive and play therapy techniques to tailor the approach to the youngest member of the family system.