Individual Therapy
Individual therapy is a therapeutic treatment process that is used for individual clients to explore their feelings, beliefs, or behaviors, identify aspects of their lives that they would like to change, or work through challenging or influential memories or events from their life. Individual therapy is provided in a safe, caring, and confidential therapeutic office environment.
People seek therapy for a variety of reasons, from coping with major life adjustments, changes, or challenges, to work through and manage mental health symptoms, and to simply have a greater sense of well-being, happiness, and finding the “serenity” within their lives.
Family Therapy
Family Therapy is a therapeutic treatment process that is used to work with a family on a specific issue or family concern, which is affecting the well-being and the functioning of the family. Family Therapy is often used to help families work through life changes, a major transition, divorce or separation, mental or behavioral problems, grief and loss, or a difficult period of time within the family.
The benefits of family therapy are to work on family problems in a safe and controlled environment, guided by a licensed and trained mental health professional. Family Therapy is used to enhanced effective communication skills, improve problem solving, display healthy boundaries, conflict resolution for members of the family, having better anger management skills, and to build empathy, form trust, offer forgiveness, and support within the family system.
Play Therapy
Play therapy is a specialized therapy where children use play materials and objects to express their emotions, abuse, traumas, and stressors. Toys are often viewed as the child’s words and play as the child’s language. Play therapy is to children what counseling and psychotherapy is to adults. Children are unable to understand and talk about their feelings and emotions like adults do. Even though play therapy is most often used with children, it can be used to treat people across the lifespan.
Children express themselves through a wide variety of styles of play therapy such as sand tray, art play, dramatic play, dollhouse play, puppet play, exploration play, expressive play, and fantasy play. Children can recreate experiences using play to express their anger, fears, sadness, traumas, and frustrations. Play therapy is used to treat children with major life changes, adjustments, dysregulation, disruptions, grief and loss, or experiencing major stressors or trauma (physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal/emotional abuse and/or neglect).
A specialized play therapy room is a safe environment which provides continuity of care, structure, and predictability. It gives kids a sense of control and empowers them.
(Photo: I met one of the founders of Play Therapy, Dr. Gary Landreth, at the 2017 Association For Play Therapy International conference in Minneapolis.)
Group Therapy
Group Therapy is a therapeutic treatment process in which a group of people with similar emotional problems or disorders meet typically weekly to discuss their problems and concerns. Group Therapy is moderated and led by a trained mental health professional or professionals in a safe and controlled environment.
Group Therapy is often designed to target specific problems, such as depression, social anxiety, parent/child relational problems, or substance abuse. Other group therapies focus on improving social skills or increasing self-esteem/self-worth. Many groups often help those who have experienced grief and loss, by losing a loved one by separation, divorce, death, or suicide.
Benefits of group therapy are it can act as a support network to its group members. Past group members are often surprised on how rewarding a group can be after the completion of a group therapy process. Many people enjoy being a part of group therapy, as they feel they are not the only ones struggling with a similar concern, plus they feel supported at the same time.