Therapy for Children and Families
Play therapy builds upon the natural language of children: play. We offer creative approaches that engage children in processing their feelings and learning new strategies for expressing themselves and getting their needs met. Additionally, our services for parents and families recognize their integral role in healing.
For Children
Play Therapy
Play Therapy is increasingly the recognized method of working with children and adolescents. Play is natural for children because play is the language children use to communicate, and they more readily engage in this type of therapy than traditional talk therapy. A trained play therapist understands the metaphors used in the child’s play to gain understanding of the problem areas and recognize the stages of healing. Play therapy provides safe and supportive environment so the child can work through problems, express themselves and heal without feeling overwhelmed or being re-traumatized.
Additionally, play therapy addresses the sensory component of trauma that cannot be achieved through traditional psychotherapy. The combination of family therapy “talk time” and play therapy integrates the cognitive memories of trauma/loss with the part of the brain that holds the deeper emotional experience: the body itself.
Play Therapy is effective for resolving behavior problems at home and school, anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma, loss and adjustment to family stressors and life transitions. The child is able to learn adaptive skills, gain self-control and mastery, increase self esteem and heal from trauma and loss.
Play Therapy and EMDR
EMDR therapy uses bilateral stimulation techniques to help “unlock stuck material,” allowing the mind and body to process the traumatic event. Play Therapy techniques combined with EMDR can be effective in working with children with trauma, anxiety and phobias.
Practitioners
Sand Tray Therapy
Sand tray therapy is a specialized modality that uses sand and selected “miniatures”, objects which provide the medium for emotional expression and communicating one’s experience. The use of sand has a kinesthetic quality that addresses the sensory component of trauma, the deeper emotional experience that is retained in the body itself.
For children, sand tray provides a safe, natural way for self-expression, communication of unconscious feelings and needs, means of telling “their story”, as well as a medium for problem-solving and development of adaptive skills and self-mastery.
Focusing Sand Tray Therapy is a specialized means of using sand tray therapy that allows one to focus specifically on a problem, issue or fear. It might be a problem or place where one feels continuously stuck. This sand tray approach uses mindfulness meditation techniques combined with guided exploration or dialogue leading to deeper insight into the problem, issue or fear. It involves tuning into one’s somatic (body) experience and feeling affect awareness. The experience of Focusing Sand Tray can be profoundly meaningful. Individualized Sand Tray sessions offering self-awareness, clarity and self-growth can be scheduled for one or more sessions.
Filial Family Therapy
Filial family therapy trains and coaches parents in how to better engage with their children through child-centered play sessions. Children experiencing attachment difficulties from adoption, foster care or trauma may be good candidates for this approach.
Infant Massage
Infant Massage strengthens bonding and begins the dialogue of healthy touch with your child. Parents massage their own babies and learn different strokes each week that aid in relief from colic and gas discomfort and muscle tension while promoting bonding and better sleep.
Practitioners
FirstPlay Therapy
FirstPlay Therapy is an attachment-based, infant-parent counseling and storytelling program. FirstPlay therapists support parents and babies through simple storytelling and playful nurturing touch activities that foster attuned communication and connection. Additionally, group programs allow parents to share and connect with one another.
Practitioners
For Parents and Families
Parent Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT)
PCIT (Parent Child Interactive Therapy) engages parents and children in a therapeutic activity together, as guided by a therapist. Research has demonstrated this to be highly effective in helping parents address their children’s emotional needs and outcomes show reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety, and behavioral acting out in children.
With these positive outcomes, parents experience decreased levels of stress, and families enjoy more positive relationships.
Practitioners
Parent Consultation and Coaching
Integral to all child-centered work, parent consultation and coaching assists the adults in the child’s life to cooperate towards a common goal, create meaningful plans to support their child, and provide feedback about the progress of interventions to address their child’s behaviors. Therapists provide simple, realistic strategies for strengthening the parent-child bond and improving effective communication.
Co-Parenting Collaborative Therapy
The therapist helps to empower each parent— encouraging them to articulate their values and ideas in terms of how to raise their child. The therapist helps the parents develop a process where they come together, creating a series of mutual agreements. The objective is for the parents to collaborate and implement that process together in a way that they can feel good about.
Family Therapy and Autism
Families often need support navigating the educational and community services available to support their autistic child. The therapist serves as a resource, educating the family about how to access programs that may be beneficial and serving as a liaison where appropriate. Accessing the right care and devoting your time and attention to help your autistic child thrive takes a lot of time and attention. It can be stressful for families. The therapeutic process emphasizes the needs of parents as well, focusing on their ability to collaborate and provide that secure and steady anchor for their child.
Adoption
Adopted children face unique issues that often remain unaddressed. These issues sometimes become manifest in seemingly unrelated ways, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, or behavioral issues. Family and child-centered play therapy offers support in addressing these concerns. For adopted adolescents, questions of identity and belonging may be at the forefront, and therapy offers a safe space for healing.
