To see a World in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower.
~William Blake~
Everyone is unique and has the capacity to heal and to flourish. Therapy is adapted to facilitate wellness through awareness and activation of the innate drive towards healing and wholeness within the context of a warm, accepting, and supportive relationship. I take a biopsychosociospiritual - or holistic - perspective and therapeutic approaches are gentle and sensitive to diversity, culture, and history, including those which involve trauma.
Counselling: Just like grains of sand that have travelled from stream to beach you possess qualities that may not be seen when viewed superficially; like the wild flower you possess a beauty and resilience of which you may be unaware. In verbal counselling I will meet you wherever you are at in your journey and your growth and may include aspects of Narrative Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and Person-Centered Therapy (PCT).
Expressive Therapy: While teens and adults may benefit from verbal counselling methods as well as expressive therapies, children are much less likely to express themselves with words. For them, play is language and toys are their words. They naturally play to process and make meaning of their daily lives and to heal from painful experience. Play is essential to healthy development emotionally, cognitively and socially. Play therapy is a type of expressive therapy in which the child explores and plays with toys or other expressive materials that are carefully selected by the therapist to best facilitate growth and healing. Expressive therapy may also include art, dress-up, puppetry, drama, music, singing, movement, dollhouse or sand play.
Sand play is a gentle yet powerful psychotherapeutic approach that is effective for all ages from children to seniors. Through spontaneous imaginative play in trays of sand, the client may sculpt the sand and position miniature figurines and objects to create concrete images that represent, express, and make connections between their inner and outer worlds. When trauma or wounding has occurred, typical development or forward movement has been interrupted, or confusion has clouded clarity or peace of mind, the sand play process may encourage healing and understanding.
Watch, Wait and Wonder and Child Parent Relationship Therapy are infant or child-led, play-based psychotherapeutic approaches that provide space for the infant/child and parent to work through emotional, developmental and relational struggles. These empirically tested approaches are effective with a range of infants and children with relational, behavioural, regulatory and developmental problems.