Meet Courtney

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Like many of the clients I work with this is where you expect me to talk about my education and why I am qualified to work with you and/or your family. Well, I will get to that in a minute. Right now I want to focus on what type of client I tend to have the most success with. After all, your main focus is you or your loved ones mental health and I want you to be able to determine if I am going to be a good fit.

Parents:

The children I have the most success with in therapy tend to have perfectionistic tendencies (becoming overwhelmed if they make even a small mistake or a bad grade) or ADHD (easily distracted, low impulse control, etc.). If your child is experiencing anxiety when it comes to peer relationships, trying to please others, trying to be the best at everything they do and become devastated if they do not do as well as they feel they should have, then they may be struggling with perfectionism. They may not know how to handle the pressure they put on themselves when it comes to these things. If your child is getting in trouble at school and not fully understanding why they may struggle with impulsivity or have ADHD. This can be very confusing for children because they are just being themselves and getting punished for it. This can cause anxiety and even depression in children with ADHD. A lot of times anger can also be a “symptom” of perfectionism as well as ADHD. Not understanding why they lose recess (let’s be honest this is a bad punishment for someone who needs to release their energy) or feeling anxious because they didn’t get all of their homework done before soccer or dance. My goal is to help your child understand what is going on and giving them a safe place to process what they are feeling and experiencing in the way that works best for them

Did someone say art?

Many of my sessions include art activities, opportunities for your child to create something that didn’t exist before. What this does is allows a safe space for your perfectionistic child to create a mess (even if it is a tiny mess) or your impulsive child to make something intentional in a safe space. Your child will never get in trouble for “making a mess” in my office, in fact I encourage it! Creating art helps to increase self-esteem and independence they can’t do this if they are worried about getting in trouble or making a mess! Your child will be able to create whatever they want in a judgment free, safe space. Right now, I have watercolor paint, air dry clay, markers, crayons, and colored pencils for creating…OH and sometimes we make slime!

Along with art and play I also incorporate dialectical behavior therapy, and traditional talk therapy into session. I am pretty flexible in my plan for each session. Sometimes your child will need to talk more and other times your child will need to play or create something. Just remember that each therapy session may look completely different!

Now a little about my qualifications

License

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

Registered Play Therapist Candidate

Education

Master of Marriage and Family Therapy, Converse College

Bachelor of Arts, Psychology and Art Therapy, Converse College

My graduate studies were extremely rigorous, and I received hundreds of hours of live supervision (where a supervisor actually watched my sessions behind a one-way mirror. It was terrifying, but it made me grow and become more confident as a therapist).

I am a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and the Association for Play Therapy (APT). 

I utilize several evidence-based theoretical approaches in therapy.

I integrate a number of models depending on the issues I’m treating, but here are some of the most common approaches I use:

  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

  • Narrative Therapy

  • Structural Family Therapy

  • Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT)

  • Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy (CBPT)

I also have training in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). I promise it is not as scary and it sounds, but it is a trauma treatment so it will take time and effort on both my part and yours to be successful.

The most important thing to remember about therapy is that it is for YOU! I want you to get what you need out of session. I will even ask you “what do you hope to get out of the therapy today?” at the beginning of the session. Oh and don’t worry I’m not going to make you lie down on a couch and ask you “how does that make you feel?” 100 times.