Parent-Child Psychotherapy
In many cases, the best therapy approach for working with children 5 years old and under includes their parent(s) and/or caregivers, because they are so crucial to a young child’s well-being, and spend much more time with the child than a therapist ever could. This kind of therapy is called parent-child psychotherapy, and allows parents to be an active participant in the therapy, so they can continue to use what they learn from the therapy experiences in the rest of their everyday lives.
In parent-child psychotherapy, we use play to understand and support the relationship between parents and their child. These sessions are generally enjoyable and involve sitting on the floor together and playing with age-appropriate toys. At times, we meet with you and your partner alone to reflect on your experiences and your child's experiences of these sessions, with a focus on understanding and improving the interactions between the family members. With your permission, we may suggest using an evidence-based technique called video-feedback, which involves video-taping different kinds of play and interactions between you and your child, and then observing the videos together to reflect on certain subtleties that may otherwise be difficult to notice.