Blog

I often say parenting should be like a mullet. With the “business being up front” If you know a situation is going to be hard for your child ex. going to grandmas house or going to target and not getting a toy this time. It is good to think ahead of the meltdown and try to prevent it. By...

*I do not have a favorite age.. I do not have a favorite age* but I loveeeee working with the birth to five kiddos! I love getting to help them securely attach to their caregivers and help them view the world as a safe place to explore. I also love all the pretend play, block building and the ...

As a systemic therapist (and retired teacher) I love getting to be a part of helping children succeed in the classroom. Whether it be coordination of care with teachers for IEP and 504 meetings, or helping children practice skills for motivation, focus, or increased emotional regulation in the ...

Solution-Focused Therapy is an approach that empowers clients to own their abilities in solving life's problems. Rather than traditional psychotherapy that focuses on how a problem was derived, SFT allows for a goal-oriented focus to problem-solving. I believe that *most* therapy involving ...

One of the best compliments I have ever got was when one of my teens left my office and said “I have the trendiest therapist” I absolutely love working with teens, because of the time I grew up, I experienced life before technology and life after all while still being a teen. This helps ...

Middle school clients will always have a special place in my heart. I always joke that I want to put a picture behind me of me in 7th grade in my office with the words “It gets better... I swear” lol Middle school is one of the hardest times in a child’s development between ...

A fixed mindset in this scenario is convincing yourself that you can't make them happy or that things won't go well for you at all. A growth mindset example for this is having the confidence that you'll make it through. Sure, it's possible that you will make mistakes, but it's an...

Something that was taught to me again and again during my time teaching at Arizona State University’s Child Development Lab is child’s first language is play. Child led play is so important and needed for their development to explore ideas and understand them. So don’t be afraid to...

In sessions, when I ask kids (and parents) what is keeping them from change, often the answer is that “It is hard.” Early in my years of practice I started to wonder when something being hard became an acceptable reason not to do it? In my office there is a huge sign that says “You...

In some sessions, I do an activity where I have everyone follow my directions and draw a picture of a bug without looking at each-others papers. I say things like “it has 7 legs” and “it has polkadots” At the end I have everyone show their bugs (which turn out so different) ...

Adjustment disorder are stress-related conditions. You experience more stress than would normally be expected in response to a stressful or unexpected event, and the stress causes significant problems in your relationships, at work or at school. Adjustment Disorders often become present when big ...

The family life cycle is a series of stages through which a family may pass over time. Typical stages in family development include the periods of a single young adult, a newly married couple, a family with young children, a family with adolescents, launching the children, and a family in later ...

Systemic therapy seeks to reduce distress and conflict within family dynamics by addressing and improving the systems of interactions between individuals. Systemic therapy can involve anyone in the family, whether parents and children, grandparents or siblings Basically- if there is a problem, ...

Lets say that you are a child and you really really love Poptarts. But every morning you come downstairs to see your mom eating them! This made you super upset so you come to therapy if I only met with you “the child” alone, and you came to me with this problem in individual therapy I ...