My Approach
My Psychotherapy Process
I offer a personalized integration of modalities built on your family’s needs and situation, although I always meet the parents first to explore the challenges and experiences of your child and your family over time.
What Does
Psychotherapy With Me Actually Looks Like?
I offer a personalized integration of modalities built on your family’s needs and situation, although I always meet the parents first to explore the challenges and experiences of your child and your family over time.
Information will be shared not to make a psychological diagnosis of a disorder your child might have, but to foster an understanding of what is underlying the present challenges. For example, you will be invited to share the history of the parental couple, the developmental of your child and about your own history of attachment during our interviews. I aim to support reflexive capacities of the parent while building a safe space for the whole family, both part of the therapeutical process.
First sessions can be
Parents first
Depending on your situation, we suggest joint or individual sessions with the parents.
The decision of including or not your child in the process and the timing of their first appointment is discussed together usually during the first appointment. A follow-up with me could include only parental guidances, or a personalized integration of modalities coherent with your family’s needs and present situation.
Since humans and families are unique and complex, we cannot predict the number of psychotherapy sessions one may need, although we tend to offer follow-ups lasting between 6 and 12 months with biweekly or weekly sessions with parents and/or children. We’re working on providing the most effective interventions possible within our best judgment and approach, while honouring the reality that the therapeutical process of a child or a parent cannot be forced and unfolds at its own pace.
Note that when the situation warrants, we can offer prompt parental guidance sessions that do not necessarily lead to psychotherapy.
We Cannot Force A Flower To Grow ,
We Can Only Nurture It.
Let’s Talk About
Parental Guidance
My goal within a parental guidance session is to provide you with a big enough sense of safety and authenticity within our relationship so that you can freely explore the resonances between your child’s experiences and your own.
I will help you to identify how your child’s challenges are naturally challenging for you too and how you can relate to inner self in a way that creates more space for your child and your own healing across generations.
Within the theoretical frame of attachment and interpersonal neurobiology , I will support you in decoding your childs behaviours in terms emotions, perceptions and responses of the nervous system while uncovering your own responses to this beautiful mess, so you get to see your child for who they really are .
It is from that place of clarity and connection and that you will cultivate the parts of you needed to act in line with what you hold dear within the relationship with your child.
The parent-child relationship might be one of the most challenging areas of your life, but it is also an invitation to come back to essential parts of yourself serving your growth as well.
The Art of
Child Psychotherapy
Our first goal with a child is to create a free and protected space of expression. Meaning that I provide them with a relationship and an environment fostering a sense of safety and giving them the permission to be completely themselves.
That sense of safety foundational to the childs expression, and ultimately regulation of their emotions, cannot be forced. It can only be nurtured through various relational variables.
Being with a child while being with your emotions in a way that fosters safety and growth is easier said than done. It is an Art that inspires me to study, reflect and meditate on every day to create the best environment I can for each unique child I meet.
Play has a foundational role in an encounter with a child. Children communicate their emotions symbolically, rather than rationally explaining their problems to us.
Its not about getting rid of undesirable parts or feelings, its about learning HOW TO BE WITH them.
Child Guidance
Express and Regulate Emotions
Our interventions aim to help your child express and regulate their emotions, perceptions and their issues through play with a non-directive approach.
At the appropriate time for your child, we can also introduce more directive techniques to hone the development of some skills, according to the agreed therapeutic objectives.
Of course, our way of working with the child is flexible and will depend on their particular characteristics and needs and we will adjust as best as possible during follow-up appointments.
The safe and protected space we offer the child also serves parental guidance sessions since the play of the child is a direct window into their world. We aim to translate the play of the child to the parent in a way that supports insights on their ways beings, promoting acceptance of their true selves and resonance in your relationship.
All of my interventions, weather its with children or adults, are guided by the principle that growth is sponsored by the connection with ourselves and others, and ways to foster that resonance creatively arises with each family I work with.
My Theoretical Foundations
To get to these layers, I draw from an integrated set of theoretical foundations in constant evolution including:
