Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Child, Teen & Family Therapist, Ecotherapist
Incorporating Creativity, Expressive Arts, Mindfulness, Nature & Play
I enjoy helping clinicians on their path towards licensure, either for LCSW or LPC, here in Tennessee. Since April 2020 these supervision sessions have been primarily offered in a virtual format. Just as I use creativity, expressive arts, mindfulness, nature, play and sandtray in therapy, I also love to incorporate them in supervision as well! We also address the need for intentional self-care. I am currently not able to accept new supervisees at this time.
Licensed clinicians can also benefit from consultation. I have found in the past few years that the needs for self-care among helping professionals are growing. While this is often a part of supervision, more is needed - as even seasoned therapists are finding themselves more challenged than ever. In addition to consultations, I also started offering retreats in this area of professional self-care in 2021, and now hold one each year in November. (Learn more about this on the Presentations page.) I am also willing to host and organize self-care retreat for others in our field, including agencies and practice groups, as well as those in other fields. (As many professions have their own stressors and struggles.) I also beleive that If I am going to teach and share with others about self-care, I must also practice it. As such I often go on solo retreats to area bed & breakfasts to nurture my own self-care- and keep an eye out for future retreat spaces!
Earlier in my career I often had to explain the necessity of play for children and their emotional well-being as well as to overcome emotional challenges and traumatic experiences. Over my more than thirty years of practice I have since seen a greater understanding about the need for play, and often get contacted for services specifically because I provide play therapy.
I have completed hundreds of hours of continuing education in these fields over my past thirty-plus years as a child and family therapsit. I was able to work with several colleagues to co-found a state branch for a play therapy association in 1993. I also became the first credentialed play therapist and supervisor in Tennessee back in 1994, which I held and practiced with through March 2023.
There has been tremendous growth about both expressive arts and play therapies over these years. My time providing play therapy, supervising aspiring play therapists, and more recently training about play therapy has been incredibly rewarding. I am now currently pursuing certification as an Ecotherapist! I have expanded my scope of practice beyond play therapy to write, train and supervise as a child and family therapist and social worker integrating creativity, play and expressive therapies, including sandtray, mindfulness, nature and more.
I am also transitioning to include more involvement with international play associations, as well as nature organizations, to promote play and creativity for emotional well-being, and empasizing the need for free play, creative play, risky play and nature play. These are important next steps as the need for creativity, nature and play extends beyond the therapeutic playroom. As such, I am excited at becoming more involved with macro practice at this stage of my career by working with programs addressing emotional wellness for children and teens and their families.
Over the years I have been able to attend many trainings and conferences all over the country and have been trained by most of the legends in our field- from Eliana Gil, Violet Oaklander and Marie-Jose Dhaese to Garry Landreth and Charles Schaefer and more.
I will always be passionate about play and expressive therapies! They truly are the best ways to "reach children", going back to those first words when I was introduced to play therapy back in 1991 by Drs. Byron and Carol Norton. Play is the language of children and there is mounting research supporting play therapy as an evidence-based treatment modality that can be incorporated and integrated with expressive arts and nature-based interventions with children, teens and families.
I also have to include that the worlds of imagination, make-believe and puppetry were forever opened to me as a child by watching such great shows as Mister Roger's Neighborhood and Sesame Street. I truly believed that Mister Rogers was speaking directly to me when he would say daily: "There's no person in the whole world just like you, and I like you just the way you are!" Now I get to speak those same words to children; sometimes as me, sometimes as a puppet character, but always with meaning. (And while I don't have the cardigan, I do sometimes have the sneakers!) He valued childrens' feelings and inspired creativity and imagination for so many.
Mister Rogers also brings hope for us all. He tells us to "look for the helpers in times of tragedy". Another one of his sayings that I love: "Anyone who helps a chid in his life is a hero to me!" How could I not treasure this man and his influence!
In September 2022 I was excited to accept the invitation to join the Educators Neighborhood, which is a project of the Fred Rogers Institute. I am gratfeul to now be on year two with this program!