I've completed 150 hours of training in CCPT and Interpersonal Relational Neurobiology through the Play Strong Institute focusing on Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) and Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB). That means I completed the required amount of non-contact hours toward becoming a registered play therapist. This training has deepened my understanding of how children communicate through play, how secure relationships support healing, and how neuroscience informs trauma-responsive care. It has provided me skills and training and strengthened my ability to recognize children's unique emotional experiences and foster connection, safety and healthy attachment. I've also received training in Child-Parent Relationship Therapy which works with CCPT to support parents in their relationship with their kids.
The journey of foster and adoptive parenting is often characterized by devotion entwined with complexity. Understandably so, since children who enter foster care or adoption often arrive bearing invisible histories of adversity, histories inscribed not only in memory but within the developing nervous system.
When adults are overwhelmed, we usually talk.
"The greatest gift you can give your child isn't a perfect childhood—it's your consistent presence."
Learn what the Association of Play Therapy, our national association, says about play therapy to parents and caregivers. Click here.
As a family therapist, I've worked with children and families for 16 years utilizing an evidence-based, attachment related approach. I create a safe, nurturing environment where children can express themselves, be heard, seen, felt and understood. This allows them to work through and recover from the hard stuff in their lives.
The most difficult aspects of life for kids include school and social problems, navigating friendships and social situations, and going through development changes and transitions, death, divorce and traumatic incidences. Screen-related issues, (devices, video games and the like) are also part of our every day lives and with AI, we're seeing kids exposed to stuff that causes stress for them and their parents.
Classical American literature is full of depictions of characters who rise to the occasion, battle unsurmountable obstacles and are faced with struggling to survive. This gives us historical and creative stories which show how children can go through the hardest circumstances in life, and experience resiliency with resources they get in a therapeutic environment.
Child anxiety, low self esteem or struggling with identity, separation struggles, social struggles, emotional outbursts or emotional shut down, school struggles, aggression, sleep issues, and big emotions show up in various ways.
Children don't usually have the words to express what's going on inside, even though they take everything in and are quite emotional. They naturally turn to play and express themselves behaviorally. Play becomes their language through which they communicate feelings, process life events and recover.
These well-researched, scholarly articles demonstrate the effectiveness of child-centered play therapy for children and teens.
