Who I work with

I work with children, families, adults, and couples who want to create lasting change in their lives. I provide individual, family therapy and couples therapy. I work with many adoptive, blended, single-parent and culturally diverse families.

I believe that my work with children, adolescents, families and couples is truly interconnected—and that they strengthen one another tremendously. This amalgamation has given me stronger insight and ability to reach each of my clients.

Practice Areas:

  • ADD/ADHD
  • Learning and Behavioral Concerns
  • Self Esteem
  • School Choice
  • Attachment and Separation Anxiety
  • Behavioral and Verbal Conflict
  • Parent and Child Interaction and Family Dynamics
  • Parental Skills Development: discipline, boundaries, limit setting, communication, emotional literacy and regulation, anger and conflict resolution
  • School Problems; academic and behavioral
  • Blended, Adopted, Reunified Families
  • Social Development and Peer Issues
  • Anxiety: worry, fears, separation, social, physical, academic performance
  • Grief and Loss
  • Sexual Abuse
  • Gender Concerns
  • Depression: irritability, being overwhelmed, social concerns, ineffectiveness, lack of enjoyment and pleasure
  • Sleep Issues
  • Daily Routines and Schedules
  • Adjustment and Transition
  • Eating/Body Image
  • Pervasive Developmental Delays

Children & Teens

I recognize the importance of the developmental periods in a child’s life, and the essential role that parents and caregivers play. I team with family members to promote wellness, competence and resiliency, equipping children with the tools they need to develop into strong, well-rounded adolescents and adults. I understand the complex problems: developmentally, socially, academically and physically that impact today’s kids and families.

With a sensible, research-based approach, I help empower children to develop appropriate life skills and behaviors that improve the quality of their daily and family life.

I help bridge an understanding within parent-child relationships and families that enrich their relationships and support the development of children: socially, emotionally, intellectually, physically and behaviorally.

I believe that all children—and all people—inherently want to do well. I work to address areas of weakness in children or things that may be out of balance within them, and help sync-up their development.

I also help with children’s issues that are of a more serious nature. I help children who are suffering serious loss, and who are victims of abuse and other traumatic events to reorganize the confusion of trauma in a way that helps them continue to develop without gaps.

Working with children and families to improve all aspects of life is my passion.

Play Therapy

My focus is on utilizing techniques that truly allow me to make a difference in my work. I have found that non-directive and directive play therapy in my work with children, has created effective, lasting change time and time again.

I believe that children learn, describe, and make sense of their world through play. The right play technique provides me with a snapshot of your child. This helps me to understand how your child is doing, to see their perceptions—and it helps me map out where we want them to go.

Play Therapy can be a diagnostic tool that helps us to see how your child processes information, interacts with his/her community, sees herself/himself in relationship to others, and masters skills. It can also be an evidence-based strategy used to help a child access feelings, develop coping skills, or master a skill that fosters their emotional, social or cognitive development.

I have studied attachment in infants and young children, family play therapy, parent-child interactions, as well as traumatic play and fililal therapy. I have practiced and developed these techniques extensively.

I have a thirst for learning innovative, evidence-based approaches that help children and families, and I bring this passion to my work. I understand the complexity of family dynamics. I help families understand how to support the growth of young children, and how to find and ignite enjoyment within their families.

I recognize that children are different than adults. Their needs are unique. Their life views are different. And their ability to express themselves is different than that of the adults in their lives. I help both children and adults understand these differences and work with them in a constructive way to move forward. Play Therapy can truly forge the way forward for children, in a different way than adult talk therapy.

Parenting and Family Practice Areas

  • Parental Skills Development: discipline, boundaries, limit setting, communication, emotional literacy and regulation, anger and conflict resolution
  • Grief and Loss
  • Medical Illness
  • Special Needs
  • Sibling Issues
  • Communication
  • Emotional Expression

Families

Family is tremendously important to me. And the dynamic that families share, the joy and the happiness that they experience together, and the strength, support, and resiliency they gain from each other – are a gift. Yet sometimes stress, past experiences, anxiety, depression (to name a few) intrude on the cohesive nature of a family.

Life circumstances like illness, school or job problems, and outside situations beyond our control, can upset the homeostasis of a family. They can interfere with how a family clicks together, the communication processes, or how the family is interacting based on what they are confronting.

The family dynamic isn’t always perfect. Sometimes it needs work to bring it back into balance or achieve a “different type” of harmony. Sometimes it needs to be developed or redefined so that the gift of family can fully be appreciated.

In my work with families, I focus on:

  • Strengthening Bonds
  • Opening Communication
  • Appreciating the Family Dynamic
  • Resolving Conflict

My family therapy training reaches beyond traditional approaches to help families address concerns and strengthen bonds. I appreciate the concerns and issues that face today’s families and children, and honor the unique qualities intrinsic to each family -- using these strengths to promote respect, cooperation and enhanced relationships.

When I am working with your family, I am drawing from the passion I have for family in general, the family dynamic, and the bonds that help us all to be better, stronger people.

I have a personal approach to family therapy, and although it may not entirely shine through in black and white on this page, I know how truly important your family, their happiness, and their success is to you – because I have my own – who I deeply love and would do everything I could for… to ensure their health, success and happiness.

I feel that my insight and compassion when dealing with the family dynamic has supported me in my family therapy practice, and I am grateful for the families who are happier, healthier, and more bonded because of it.

Therapy Services:
Children, Teens & Families

  • Child Therapy
  • Family Therapy
  • Filial Therapy-Parent and Child
  • Parenting Skills
  • Individual Therapy
  • Couples Therapy
  • Consultation

Professional Services

  • Community Presentations and Workshops
  • Academic Lectures
  • Case Consultation

Practice Areas:

  • Communication and Listening Skills
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Adjustment and Life Transitions
  • Medical Illness Adjustment
  • Grief and Loss
  • Trauma and Abuse
  • Couples Conflict
  • Marital Issues
  • Attachment
  • Commitment
  • Emotional Expressiveness
  • Roles and Responsibility
  • Affairs and other Relationships

Individuals

I work to guide individuals through critical life events by first accepting where they are, and using that as a starting point. Together, we apply a problem-solving approach to create new coping skills and cognitive behavioral strategies that reduce conflict, increase insight, and encourage personal growth.

We can lessen the intensity of past experiences and their ability to deplete us, gnaw at us, and twist us up… their ability to destabilize our resiliencies, our ability to cope, manage, produce, enjoy, and sustain relationships, either professional or personal.

In our work together, we insert strategies that individuals can use to ground themselves and ignite in their own personal growth and relationships to overcome life struggles. My intense level of work with children and adolescents has given me an enhanced understanding of the “building blocks” that make up each individual, as well as how to develop areas that may require growth.

I help clients develop an understanding between feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, and help them realign in a way that works better for them.

I help those dealing with loss, anxiety, depression, or trauma – move forward—to accept and work with their current situation.

I use techniques and theory to cultivate change and give hope that things can be different... that they can weather the storm and make it. I teach the skills needed to handle everyday life, and the struggles that come with it. I use concrete methods to resuscitate hope, and make sure these methods work for the patient, not just short term, but for life. I help the individual visualize the end result, and their participation helps us to know when they have achieved their goal.

Practice Areas:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Adjustment and Life Transitions
  • Medical Illness Adjustment
  • Grief and Loss
  • Trauma and Abuse
  • Couples Conflict
  • Marital Issues
  • Attachment
  • Commitment
  • Emotional Expressiveness

Couples

With intensive training in couples conflict and marriage and family therapy, I can help couples move from where they are, to a place that is better, more harmonious, more fulfilling. I can assist couples in finding resolution to recurring issues. For couples to be fully available to their partnership, I help them to manage and develop their relationship health and overall well-being.