INFANTS, TODDLERS, & PRESCHOOL AGE
With You Every Step of the Way
Are you an exhausted parent of a young child? Do you have a toddler who is having tantrums or meltdowns? Do you have a child that isn't listening? Are bedtimes, meals, or transitions just painful? Are you wanting to have a better connection with your child?
Young children can have challenging behaviors leaving parents at a loss for how to help. I enjoy seeing families become more connected and parents feeling more confident in their parenting skills and their ability to respond to their child.
I am passionate about my work with young children and their families. My goal is to foster resilience and strengthen parent-child bonds by providing a safe, supportive, and collaborative, space for families to heal and grow.
Just like adults, young children (even newborns) can be impacted by stress, trauma, and transitions. Stressors can influence how babies and young children learn to relate to others and manage their emotions, and can even adversely impact their development. Each child is unique and so are their needs - some are highly sensitive to their environment, while others have difficulty responding and need more support to engage. I work with parents to better understand their child’s cues, empowering parents to develop their ability to empathetically respond to their child’s needs. I partner with parents to find a good fit between the child’s temperament and specific needs and the environment parents provide.
Often, my focus with infants and young children is to strengthen their attachment with parents, improve their well-being and social skills, help them heal from trauma, and help them improve their daily routines (sleep, mealtime, transitions). I support children and parents with developing healthy ways of coping with stressors, managing behaviors and emotions (temper tantrums!), and responding to difficult situations. I also often include parent coaching in my work with young children (see Parent Coaching for more information).
I often support new parents with developing early parent-child bond, reading baby’s cues, increasing parenting confidence, and transitioning to parenthood. Common areas of focus also include:
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Adjustment difficulties
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Anger management, including aggression, defiance, and temper tantrums
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Anxiety, including worry, fearfulness and difficulty coping with uncertainty or discomfort
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Daycare and childcare difficulties
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Defiance/noncompliance
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Difficulty coping with transitions and stressful situations (e.g., birth a of a new sibling, moves, starting daycare/changes in schools, family stressors)
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Difficulty managing emotions and expressing self in healthy ways
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Fears and phobias
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Frustration intolerance
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Rigidity
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Separation difficulties
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Social skills and peer difficulties
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Temperamental challenges, including fussiness, inflexibility, difficulty adjusting to change/transitions, easily hurt, or irritability
My Approach
I integrate a range of treatment approaches with young children and their families, that include parent coaching, Circle of Security Parenting program (COSP), mindfulness, behavior management therapy, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE). I maintain a strengths-based stance focused on building resilience and well-being. I work collaboratively with the client and family to define therapy goals and to tailor interventions to their specific needs, developmental considerations, and evidence basis for treatment.
My approach with young children is attachment-focused and sessions are often parent-focused and/or dyadic in nature, involving both child and parent. Dyadic sessions are designed to empower parents with the skills to better understand their child’s unique needs, to develop empathetic ways of understanding and supporting their child, and to strengthen the bond between child and parent. With children, parent involvement is essential to achieving treatment goals and maintaining progress after treatment, and parents are often included in sessions and as part of collateral sessions. I often include parent coaching to support parents with developing specific skills for managing behaviors and enhancing their relationship with their child.