I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in child and family therapy. I maintain a private practice in Claremont, CA.
I have over 15 years of experience working with children and families in the mental health field in a variety of settings including clinics, homes, residential treatment centers for children and teens, hospital settings, and schools (from preschool to high school). I received my Bachelor of Science Degree in Child Development and Psychology from California State University, Fullerton and my Master of Arts Degree in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from Azusa Pacific University. Among my areas of expertise are early childhood mental health including attachment and bonding support for caregivers and their infant or young child, school aged children with behavioral difficulties including inattention/overactivity, anxiety, depression, & anger outbursts, grief and loss issues, mental health support for teens, parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) and parent-child care (PC-Care). I also am an LGBTQ+ affirming therapist and support children and families in their journey.
What is PCIT?
The power of PCIT is immediate feedback and tools as you work through challenges with your young child. I have over 10 years of experience providing PCIT in a variety of settings. PCIT works with parents and children together to improve the quality of the parent-child relationship and teaches parents a variety of skills needed to manage a child's behaviors that may be attributed to their temperament, stress, or trauma exposure. PCIT is proven effective by over 100 research studies. PCIT involves in the moment feedback while a parent is engaging in structured play with their child to focus on relationship enhancement and strategies to improve management of difficult behaviors. PCIT is for parents who are overwhelmed, stressed, confused, and feel guilt about how to manage their child's disruptive, stress responses, and challenging behaviors. PCIT is typically for children ages 2 to 7 and typcially last between 12-15 sessions of treatment. Many children who exhibit the following behaviors benefit from PCIT: difficulty in school or daycare, aggression toward others, refusing to follow directions or ignoring caregivers or parents, frequent tantrums, swearing, defiance, inattention, and overactivity.
Why Play Therapy?
My extensive training and experience with Play Therapy dates back to 2009. Play Therapy is also a valued, empowering, and important treatment style I utilize in my therapeutic work with children and families to aid with struggles such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and grief or loss. "Toys are children's words and play is their language," Garry Landreth. I believe children of all ages, from birth to adolescence, can use play to communicate their wants and needs, and discover through play various coping strategies that can lay their foundation for how they will cope with life stressors today and beyond.
Therapy for parents, why? The oxygen mask metaphor: Your airplane captain always reminds you that you should put your oxygen mask on first before helping another like your child.
Parents have been faced with impossible and constant juggling of painful and stressful decisions over the last few years. As a result, more parents are seeking their own personal therapy to find their own healing and support to navigate the constant obstacles of parenting a child living in our current climate. My passion for helping parents includes first time mother's, parent's of multiples, and parents managing a myriad of struggles that accompany the transition into parenthood. I believe in the importance of parental mental health, as a child benefits in seeing their parent care for their own mental health to serve as a model for optimal self care. I believe in order for a child to being able to regulate their own feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, that a trusted adult must model those steps alongside of them and often a parent participating in their own therapy can be a valuable tool for a child to see.
The importance of giving back to the mental health profession is critical!
Mental health professionals have been front line workers in the recent years in our nation's mental health crisis. My background as a supervisor in the mental health field has aided me in seeing the need for therapists seeking their own personal therapy as they obtain licensure. I have worked in community mental health since 2002, and believe all helpers need their space for healing particularly early and throughout their career journeys. I have great respect and desire to support the providers in the mental health community, particularly those earning their degrees in college and graduate school, along with those enduring the exceptionally stressful licensure process. I reserve sliding scale spots for those working on their journey and managing their stress in response to completing their steps to become a licensed therapist.
My professional memberships include:
The California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)
The Association for Play Therapy (APT)
Postpartum Support International (PSI)