You’re already facing plenty of unanswered questions. We don’t want to add more.

Q: When should I seek out help for my child?
A: The answer to this question is different for every family. The answer could be when you notice your child’s social life, big feelings, or behavior holding him or her back from being their best self. The answer could be when you feel stuck as parents and want help to communicate better, connect better, process hard things better, do life together better. You get to decide when the right time is to seek out therapy for your child, for you, for your family.

Q: How do your services work? What’s the process like?
A: It’s good to ask because every clinician practices a little bit differently. We engage and incorporate parents into the therapeutic process. That’s one of our essentials. As a result, our sessions are not set up as 50-minute-hour per week sessions. While we do work with each family to meet their individual needs, we typically see families every other week for 2 hours. This gives us ample time to work on our therapeutic goals, and we have found that the schedule works well for families who are working hard to balance busy calendars and childcare. We do offer appointments after school hours, but they are limited.

Q: Is there a specific type of therapy you do? 
A: Kelly utilizes a child-friendly, strength-based approach informed by trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, child-parent psychotherapy, dyadic developmental psychotherapy, Confessional Communities™, and TBRI™. She utilizes art, play, writing, imagining, canine-assisted interaction, and conversation to help children and grownups with emotion identification, expression, and regulation; interpersonal communication; impulse control and behavioral choices; and understanding and processing difficult histories/trauma. She has been impacted both professionally and personally by a number of helpers including Theron Huff, MA, LPC, who provides professional consultation; Curt Thompson, MD; Junlei Li, PhD of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Simple Interactions; Dafna Lender, LCSW; Karyn Purvis, PhD of TBRI™; and Fred Rogers.

Q: How long does the process typically take?
A: We see our family services as scaffolding for your family. It serves as an external support that we eventually are able to take away so that the family can stand strong on its own. Your family may only need a few months of sessions, or you may need more. We will figure that out together. The bottom line is that we believe our job is “to work ourselves out of a job,” both empowering you as parents and enabling children to best access the nurture and teaching that their parents are offering them.

Q: How are parents involved?
A: You are the one your child needs, and we see you as the primary healing resource for your child. We want to empower you with strategies and support you as you apply them so that you can best live that out with your child. You play an essential role in the process and, therefore, typically participate in every session with your child for the good of both you and your child.

Q: Where is your office exactly?
A: Our office doesn’t have a doctor’s office feel. That’s intentional, and we really like it that way. We are in Chester County, in a residential area in the borough of Phoenixville, directly across from a beautiful small-town park and public library. Families have found that our waiting room and therapy space put them at ease right from the start. And, many families like that they can come early to an appointment and play at the park or head out there to swing or slide before going home.

Q: What is canine-assisted interaction?
A: Kelly is a certified facility dog handler who spearheaded the start of an attachment-based canine-assisted therapy program called Project Puppy Love in 2018 along with Louie, a golden retriever specially trained through Paws & Affection who loves his work as a cotherapist. Before your child gets started, you and Kelly will decide together if involving him would be helpful in order to meet your goals. Not every family chooses to involve Louie in their family’s sessions. But, those who do have found that he provides a lot of opportunities to work on things like letting others be in charge, following instructions, impulse control, handling frustration, and giving and receiving affection–and he just plain makes something that is normally hard a little more fun.

Q: What should I tell my child about starting services?
A: Initial appointments are for parents only, so you don’t need to have this all figured out just yet. Many parents find that it’s not as hard as they expect it will be. But, even if it is, Kelly can talk with you about it and help prepare you for talking to your child about your first appointment together.

Q: Will you work with my child’s school?
A: As research on the effects of trauma and adverse childhood experiences has become more readily available, teachers and school staff have become more and more willing and able to partner with families of children with hard starts to give them what they need. We are happy to make suggestions to you as you seek to partner with your child’s educators. And, we have worked directly with educators and/or IEP teams if parents believe it’s needed and want that additional level of support. Kelly also enjoys speaking at conferences and hosting workshops in smaller settings to support educators.

Q: What is the cost? Do you take insurance?
A: Our desire is to make therapeutic family services financially accessible to families who need it. The cost for family services is $125 per 60-minute hour. We offer a discounted fee scale for families who find that to be a significant hardship. Kelly is a Master’s level clinician who does not hold the license required in order to contract directly with insurance companies. Some families submit receipts on their own to their insurance providers for consideration for out-of-network benefits.

If you have more questions that we didn’t address here, click here to send us a direct email. We want to do what we can so you have as few unknowns as possible. Click here to request an appointment.