How Can Therapy Help?
Sometimes you can experience difficult things and continue to easily function, and sometimes it feels like the smallest things have the greatest impact. Even if you have made peace with people and events in your life that have impacted you, the feelings you experienced during difficult situations in your past can continue to re-emerge. This can be caused by a new activating scenario, a new awareness due to reflection, a new stage of development for children and adolescents, or a re-surfacing memory.
Trauma work is an ongoing and continuous process of healing. Part of healing is finding new ways to make sense of and cope with the symptoms left behind from some of your life experiences.
This path of healing looks much different in every stage of development and each relationship we have.
For parents and caregivers, therapy can help you improve your relationships by helping you develop a more honest and compassionate relationship with yourself.
For couples and families, therapy can help improve relationships by increasing awareness of the experience of each individual in the relationship, improving communication and deepening connection.
In childhood and adolescence, therapy requires patience and adaptability on the part of the therapist. Children are both resilient and vulnerable, and the symptoms of anxiety, depression and trauma show up differently for children than adults. Depending on age and stage of development, children my not be able to express how they are feeling. Instead, they will show how they feel through their behaviors; irritability, sensitivity, aggression, withdrawal, avoidance, school performance, etc. I am passionate and dedicated to helping children navigate their internal world, make sense of their feelings and how they impact the way they interact with the world around them. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you and/or your child.
I utilize a variety of therapeutic practices to meet the unique needs of each child and family including; Internal Family Systems Therapy, Mindfulness, Somatic (Body) and Polyvagal Therapy, Trauma Informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Play.
My Story
Social Work is my 2nd career. I was inspired to pursue my Masters degree in 2018 by my children then ages; 19, 15 and 3. All 3 of my children faced social and emotional challenges in school which impacted their academics, self-esteem and sense of well-being, including challenges with peers, difficulties balancing academics, extra curricular activities and home obligations, and an overall feeling of being unsafe.
Resent research has shown that the challenges that existed pre-COVID have been compounded by new emerging challenges unique to children attending school post-pandemic, due to collective and community trauma, with an increase in depression, anxiety and feelings of hopelessness (Cimino, S., Di Vito, P. & Cerniglia, L.)
Cimino, S., Di Vito, P. & Cerniglia, L. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on psychopathological symptoms in mothers and their school-age children before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic peak. Current Psychology, 43, 13100–13109 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03360-z
Why Kaleidoscope?
We are all multifaceted beings with many parts inside of us. These parts create our internal family, a beautiful and unique kaleidoscope of emotions, ideas, beliefs and values that influence how we interact with and respond to the world around us. Just like a kaleidoscope, the parts inside of us are always present, they never disappear. However, if the current image or projection from within is not aligned with how we want to see ourselves, our parts can be re-organized into a whole new image, just like turning a kaleidoscope.
Contact
Please feel free to reach out to learn about what I do and how I may be able to help your child.
Call or Text: 808-353-1886