Do you only work with teens and sexual abuse?

No, I specialize in working with adolescents that have experienced sexual abuse at some point in their lives but it's not all I do. I also work with other types of traumas such as domestic violence, child abuse, child neglect, assault, accidents and more. 

In addition to trauma, I also treat attachment injuries. Attachment injuries can occur as a result of trauma such as child abuse, adoption, or lack of resources in parenting that has caused parent-child conflict. 

I have had the pleasure to work with children as young as 3 all the way up to 18. 

Do I have to talk about what happened?

No. Trauma therapy doesn't mean that you have to talk about the trauma. The main focus is to stabilize and address your trauma symptoms. Having gone through traumatic experiences can leave you with unpleasant emotions and thoughts resulting in depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc. Our first goal is to address the unpleasant effects of your trauma. We can work on processing the traumatic events after we have stabilized symptoms, but this will be your choice. 

What is the process of therapy?

I will send out all the consent forms first and then we will have our first session to discuss the reason you're looking for therapy and see what type of therapy is best for you. We will most likely meet once per week. Depending on your concerns we may work individually to address your trauma symptoms, work exclusively with family sessions, or combine both. For most sessions, parental involvement in session will be required. 

Does my parent have to be in session with me?

No. It is more beneficial to have parents actively involved in treatment because that is when we see the most progress sustained longer-term, but I understand parental/custodial involvement is not always appropriate depending on the circumstances.