Play Therapy

I use play therapy techniques to help youth learn self-trust, self-compassion, and process and heal from difficult life experiences. I love developing a relationship built on mutual respect and trust with my kiddo clients, and helping them learn that they are inherently strong and resilient.

People use materials in the room to express their inner world and find new meaning with creative problem solving. Request intensives for faster progress.

A few things I want you to know about play therapy: Children use play as means to process their world, it’s amazing. Play is for adults too. The therapeutic relationship helps to facilitate the play therapy process. Themes emerge from play. The foundation of safety and security, and ultimately healthy attachment are built and strengthened through play.

Talk therapy just doesn't seem to cut it with children so they require a mode of communication and expression on their developmental level. I learned Play Therapy at Stetson University where I now teach it as a professor and use it daily in my private practice. Play is a child's natural language and toys, paint brushes, and crayons are their words. This is a well researched and evidenced based approach to treatment that allows children, and their caregivers, to be supported.

I use play therapy techniques to help youth learn self-trust, self-compassion, and process and heal from difficult life experiences. I love developing a relationship built on mutual respect and trust with my kiddo clients, and helping them learn that they are inherently strong and resilient.

Play therapy use toys and games to help children express their feelings and thoughts in a way that's aligned with their developmental stage.

Play Therapy has been researched as the most effective modality for treating children. Children communicate through play, and in child-centered Play Therapy the therapist enters into the child's world, responding with validation and reflection to provide relief from the symptoms which brought the child to therapy. The therapist then models responding in a regulated way to the child's play, so that the child can acquire tools to support themselves in regulating their own emotions.

I do Parent Child Interaction Therapy and Child Parent Psychotherapy, two therapies that use play to help parents and children overcome difficulties and process difficult feelings. In Parent Child Interaction Therapy, I will help you follow along with your child's play, while also setting limits. In Child Parent Psychotherapy, I will also help you follow along with you child's play, and help your child use play to process difficult experiences.

I love utilizing play therapy techniques in my work with individuals in couples. Depending on your level of interest and needs, we may draw, paint, play with clay, or utilize sand trays in session.

When working with children, I offer child-centered play therapy during in-person visits. These modalities compliment children’s natural language of play and creativity, and allow them to work through their feelings in a comfortable and safe way. Young people are so often being directed and required to perform. I believe having a space where they get to exercise their agency and voice their opinions and preferences is a therapeutic experience.

Through play therapy, children and youth are able to explore and express thoughts, feelings, and experiences that they have not yet developed the language skills necessary. Through play therapy, we are able to interact on a level that children and youth understand and respond to, leading to healing and growth.

Trained in play therapy, I work with children from ages 3 and up utilizing child-centered and cognitive-behavioral play therapy approaches to help children accomplish their emotional, social, and behavioral goals. I work with kids who experience trauma, anxiety, depression, social/behavioral problems at school or home, co-parenting and blended family issues.

I offer sand try therapy and play therapy from a Polyvagal lense.

Through course studies at the University of North Texas I learned the basics of Play Therapy with some of the leaders in the field of play therapy and after graduation I continued my studies to get supervision to become a Registered Play Therapist (RPT).

Play therapy is a structured, theoretically based approach to therapy that builds on the normal communicative and learning processes of children. Play therapy strategically helps children express what is troubling them when they do not have the verbal language to express their thoughts and feelings. Toys are like the child's words and play is the child's language. Through play, we can help children learn more adaptive behaviors when there are emotional or social skills deficits.

I have worked with children in various settings for over five years. Through this experience, I have taken trainings centering on play therapy and am currently working towards becoming a registered play therapist with the Association of Play Therapy.