Therapy for Kids
Therapy for kids aged 2-17 years
Located in The Woodlands, Texas
LGBTQIA+ Affirming
Something unfathomable happened to your child. Maybe it has involved:
Someone in your family leaving or dying, and they are struggling with grief, or they had to move homes, leaving everything familiar behind.
Witnessing violence or experiencing abuse or neglect. Or they’ve simply had hard thing after hard thing pile on top of a mountain of stress and struggle.
You desperately wish you could take away all of their pain, and you have no idea how to begin to help them.
Whatever it is that you’re experiencing, you’re beginning to notice the impact on your child’s life:
They aren’t their “real self” and don’t want to do the things they used to find joy in.
Sleeping is now a thing of the past, or they can’t sleep alone anymore.
You’re getting calls from school about them acting out, doing things that are totally different from the child you thought you knew.
They are asking really hard questions about what happened, and you don’t know how to answer them.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Just imagine your child:
Finally sleeping through the night. Bonus points if it is in their own bed in their own room.
Returning to playing and enjoying themselves, making messes of their rooms as they act out their latest fake YouTube video with Barbies or make their next art creation.
Singing and dancing to “Shake it Off” or “Let it Go” or that really annoying one from that one Netflix movie Vivo about drums.
Coming home from school and actually *gasp* talking to you about their day, their friends, and the inner workings of their life.
Therapy for Kids Can Help
It may feel unimaginable now, but this does not have to define your child’s life. You can all find a new normal. Your child can get back to being their real self again, that is full of life and joy and delight. And I can help them get there.
Therapy for kids helps your child do 3 things:
Process the trauma effects in their brain and their body, and integrate them in ways that allows the trauma effects to resolve.
Have a safe space to talk about what happened to them, how they might feel different, or how they are feeling about this terrible thing that no one else seems to really understand.
Learn how trauma affects their brain and body, and ways they can cope with those things that they can use for the rest of their lives.
I’ll help through this process, tailoring each step to your child’s unique needs and experiences. My approach to trauma therapy for kids comes from a place of connection and optimism: knowing that your child intuitively knows what they need to work through the moment they step foot in the therapy room. Or likely even before, and they just need that safe and supported space to do the work.
It’s time to find a new normal where this trauma doesn’t define your child’s life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the first session like?
A: Even before the first session with your child, we will do an in-person or virtual intake session where I get a sense of the big picture of your family, what traumatic event happened that brought you to therapy, the most pressing issues for you right now as their parent, and what your hopes for your child are.
In the first session with your child, the focus is on building connection and felt safety. A child that doesn’t feel safe is unable to make any progress until they do. If your child needs it, you can be in the room in the first few sessions to help offer that connection and safety. The sessions will follow your child’s lead, noticing what they are drawn to in the toys and play items around the room and engaging with them in their play or exploration.
Q: How involved will I be in my child’s therapy?
A: While the child is the primary client, and therefore the focus of therapy, collaborating with parents is integral to their success. An hour a week with me won’t change much if nothing else at home changes. I meet with parents every few sessions to get feedback on what they are seeing at home, provide insight into the progress I am seeing in the room, and suggestions on things to try with their child.
Trauma doesn’t just affect your child, it affects your whole family. I’ll process the traumatic experience from your perspective as a parent, and help connect the dots on how it might be affecting your relationship with your child. I’ll do all of this while maintaining privacy and trust with your child, being open with you and with them about what feels safe to share.
Q: How do I prepare my child for therapy?
A: While each child is different, knowing what to expect can take some of the anxiety or fear out of seeing a new therapist. I’ll share photos of me and the office so you can look at them together and they can ask questions. You can even set a time to come tour the space before their first appointment if that would be helpful. If your child has never been to therapy before, you can describe what a therapist does in age appropriate terms, like “a therapist helps you sort out big feelings”. Or “this therapist is going to help us talk about the person who died.”
I’ll spend part of the first session preparing your child as well, giving them a tour of the office space to eliminate unknowns, providing snacks, talking about privacy, and letting them ask questions.
Q: How do we get started?
A: We will start with a short phone call to make sure I’m a good fit for what your family needs, and answer any initial questions you may have, and then we will schedule your full intake and your child’s first appointment from there.
