Services

Individual Therapy

In individual therapy, the therapist and client work together to alleviate internal distress, improve relationships, and raise a client’s functioning at home, school, and in other settings. When the client is a child, individual therapy involves play as well as psycho-education. Individual therapy involves building rapport and establishing a trusting relationship with the therapist. With young children, individual therapy can include a parent guidance component.

Therapists use various techniques and approaches when working individually with children and adolescents including play therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), trauma-focused CBT (TF-CBT), client-centered therapy, and more.

Play Therapy

Play therapy is a type of therapy that uses play to allow children to express and communicate their feelings. Play is the natural language of children, and play therapy allows for children to use their natural ability to express their feelings and resolve conflicts using toys and other materials in the therapeutic process. Play therapists use various tools in addition to toys including storytelling, puppets, drama, music, dance, sandtray, painting and drawing, and board games.

To learn more about Play Therapy visit the Association for Play Therapy website here https://www.a4pt.org.

Sandtray Therapy

Sandtray therapy is a non-verbal, expressive approach that can be used with children, teenagers and adults. It originated from pediatrician Margaret Lowenfeld’s ‘World Technique’ where miniature objects and sand were used together as a form of communication. Sandtray therapy allows a person to construct their own microcosm using miniature objects in a tray of sand. The scene or world created acts as a reflection of the person’s own life and allows them the opportunity to resolve conflicts, remove obstacles, and gain self-insight and acceptance. As a child builds a world in the sand, they will choose, place, and arrange miniatures in the tray. The objects that a child chooses and the way in which they express the interaction between the items allows the child to express both conscious and unconscious parts of themselves. Sandtray therapy provides a unique opportunity for a child to nonverbally engage in client-directed self-expression in a fun, safe, and contained environment.