Play is the first language that children learn.  Play Therapy is based on the fact that play is a child’s natural way of expressing, processing and externalizing feelings.  Many children have a broader range of emotional expression with “acting out” their feelings than they would using words.  Through play therapy children externalize their emotions rather than internalizing.  Through Play Therapy, children  learn to feel strong feelings in appropriate ways that have been previously mis-expressed.  

Children in Play Therapy can learn to build an expressive and verbal vocabulary for their feelings.   This allows them to better identify feelings and show them in pro-social ways.  Children learn self-awareness and control, anger expression and management, self-regulation, problem solving and stress management.

Combining EMDR and Play Therapy is a highly effective way of facilitating healing from trauma, loss, anxiety and strengthen attachment within families.  I have honed  the use of both of these modalities to offer a developmentally appropriate approach  to therapy.  I am a Certified EMDR Sandtray Specialist.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a procedure that accelerates the treatment for symptoms of anxiety, anger, guilt, depression, phobias and self-esteem issues related to both past events and present life conditions. It is a method of natural healing and is one of the latest and most effective treatments for trauma, as well as other disturbances.   EMDR is successful with traumas such as those accompanying rape, incest and child abuse, anxiety, guilt and depression. 

It is thought that painful memories are retained in the brain in an unresolved state. Normal neurological reprocessing of information does not always occur with these memories, perhaps because they are too painful. That is, whenever the person calls to mind (bring into consciousness) the information, it is automatically avoided and not reprocessed.  EMDR helps guide a person through those memories while processing their connection to current thoughts, beliefs and feelings.  EMDR is effective with children and adults.

I am a certified EMDR Therapist and Consultant.   Additionally, I have created trainings  and offer consultation to other clinicians specifically on ways to use EMDR with Children and Families.

Yearly,  I offer group for girls who are between the ages of 10-13.  This group is designed to help girls who are transitioning to adolescence find their own thoughts, feelings and voice to address the stressors that lay ahead.  The group is built around the cooperative activities of a low ropes course.  This group offers fun and insight.

Family Play therapy includes experiential and expressive activities designed to explore and elicit thoughts and feelings  within the family.  The goal is to draw on and enhance skills needed to grow together as a family.

Filial therapy is designed to strengthen the parent-child relationship. Parents work closely with a trained therapist to be emotionally present in a play therapy session.  During the initial sessions the therapist acts as a coach to help the parent use play therapy skills during the child –centered sessions with their child. Parents and the therapist debrief and reflect together themes in the play and how they may correlate with behavior and emotional themes outside the playroom.  Ultimately the family conducts the special play times together in their own home. This type of family-oriented play therapy is relatively short-term, but it does require commitment and work on the part of the parents.