Our work together will typically begin with a comprehensive assessment. In order to provide help, I need to understand who you are and what you and/or your family have experienced thus far. Once I understand you and your needs, I use a strengths-based, systemic approach always with an eye for typical developmental issues as well as the variety of issues inherent in populations with foster care or adoption as part of their background. My lens is always trauma and attachment-informed. I am sensitive to the racial, cultural, and sexual, and gender identification issues that impact children and families. I have a long history of working with LGBTQ families. Role plays, artwork, play, homework, and active practice of new skills taught are often part of therapy sessions dependent on you and your family’s goals and the various learning styles of family members. With younger children especially, sessions are structured to help children get comfortable with both the process of therapy and the range of feelings explored. My hope is to listen to what you are telling and showing me, allow you a safe space to explore feelings and make sense of what those feelings are telling you, to release them and regulate them, and learn something new about yourself and/or your family that will help you live your life in a more meaningful and satisfying way.
I actively study many models that hold attachment theory, trauma, and neuroscience findings at their core. I strive to Integrate the body-based work of many of the leading researchers and practitioners in these fields. Play and the recreation of missed sensory experiences in my work with children is paramount. My lens also includes the developmental theory synthesized and presented by Dr. Gordon Neufeld.
Along with the above, I utilize the principles presented in several different research-based models to inform my interventions including:
The ARC model
Theraplay
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
