Helping you navigate your child’s challenging behaviors and increase your connection and joy.
When you begin to recognize that your enjoyment of your child seems to be decreasing while feelings of being stuck, stressed, or overwhelmed are increasing, therapeutic services can be an effective tool to get things back on track. Healthy parent/child relationships reflect:
Secure Attachment
Trust has been established that parent can and will meet child’s needs in a compassionate and timely manner. Child feels comfortable exploring away from parent in an age-appropriate way and then returning to parent for security as needed by child. Parent and child experience a warm and joyful reunion after periods of separation.
Responsive Attunment
Parent feels confident in knowing what child needs based upon what or how child communicates the need. Parent is physically and emotionally present, available, and able to meet child’s need. Child is willing and able to receive from parent to have needs met.
Mutual Enjoyment
Parent and child engage in eye contact, physical/emotional closeness, laughter, and comfortability with each other. They receive joy from each other and give joy to each other.
There are many things that can interrupt that process and significantly impact parent/child relationships such as:
These experiences can contribute to challenging behaviors in children that are difficult for parents, caregivers, and teachers to handle. Child and family therapeutic services help to restore connection and understanding between parent and child, bringing joy back to parenting.
“When I think of Andra, elephants come to mind because of what they represent: sensitivity, wisdom, stability, loyalty, intelligence, peace, relatiblity and determination, which are all seen in the animal’s nature when observed in the wild. Elephants are gentle giants, who show care toward their herd, offspring, and elders. Andra’s passion, determination, willingness to give her all for her clients is so apparent in the work that she does. She is gentle in her approach but fierce in assisting, helping, caring for her clients.”
Malia Thorpe, LMFT; Clinical Director, Violence Intervention Program
“In the beginning, I was reluctant to share my experiences with Andra, but somehow she broke the barrier. I have been talking with Andra for the past months, and I feel great. I have learned that there are situations and things that I can change, but I also learned that if I can't do it, it's okay. I can say no sometimes. I can cry if I need to because I can't always control things. Andra is a wonderful human being. She is kind, friendly, a great listener. She helped me to see life in a different way. I am so thankful to have met her.”
Consultation Client (shared with permission)
“Andra evidences extraordinary sensitivity, care, and warmth with her clients and facilitates her clients ability to have greater self-determination in utilizing their own strengths to address their difficulties. Her communication style is engaging through the use of humor, storytelling, reflection, and emotional vulnerability. She also has an energetic and passionate attitude. She draws on this way of being in leading trainings and in public speaking presentations to community organizations about birth to five mental health services. She has also used these skills to work with school staff of several clients, facilitate their shared understanding and insights about the client’s needs, and motivate them to collectively change to a more responsive, therapeutic teaching approach. Andra embodies compassion, authenticity, and courage. Her positive attitude of work challenges and individual differences enable her to be a highly effective therapist and a joy to supervise. As Andra’s past supervisor, her clients consistently said they felt tremendous trust in her, felt seen and understood, and felt truly cared for by her. Andra is one of the most talented and committed child therapists I know.”