October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This Artwork is a collage I created in response to my work as an Art Therapist and Marriage & Family Therapist in San Diego North County. 

Anxiety is one of the main issues that people come to therapy to deal with.

Maybe you have never gone to therapy and the thought of talking about anxiety feels hard. Perhaps you have tried to “talk” to a therapist before about your anxiety. And it didn’t go as you hoped.

Some therapies rely much less on talking, Art Therapy is one of them.

You can see the wheels turning in their head. The more they think about what could happen, the worse they feel.

As a therapist who works with children, I often use Art Therapy with kids who struggle with anxiety. I offer a variety of materials when my clients are creating art in a therapy session but thought I would take an opportunity to share some of my favorite art supplies that I find helpful.

I see the influence of “devices” every day on kids. I base this on my observations over the years of working with parents and children. As a therapist in San Marcos working with elementary school-aged children, I see three ways children are negatively impacted.

As I write this many San Marcos kids have been out of school for a while. For some parents, Back-to-school can’t come quickly enough. When your kids are at camp you try to get as much work done as possible, and when they’re home it feels chaotic.

San Marcos is a great place to live. It has this easy-going feeling, with sunshine and access to beaches and hiking trails, but there are also a lot of pressures that go with living in Southern California. Raising kids and the whole parenting thing gets complicated. Lately, you have been considering child therapy in San Marcos for your child.

I’m going to start with the trap. “Do you like it?” This is the common question that children ask adults, especially parents, as they excitedly show you their latest drawing or painting. As parents, we often automatically answer, “Yes, of course, I like it”. “That’s so beautiful!”.

In this edition of my Helping Professionals blog series, I want to introduce you to Megan Toth, one of my San Diego Art Therapy colleagues. Megan has a heart for helping our military men and women, and their families.

Megan co-founded Draw Near Art Studio & Workshops, an Art Psychoeducational Business where she leads “Draw Near” workshops with her colleague and co-founder.

For this Helping Professionals Series Interview, I contacted San Diego Play Therapy expert, Belinda Lee. She is the owner of Brave Heart Child and Family Counseling in the Carmel Valley/Sorrento Valley area. I’m excited to share this interview.

My list below includes 7 things to remember, contained in the acronym, “RESPOND”. How you purposely choose to respond to your children amid grief, loss, and other stressful events is incredibly important.

In my journey, when I was a younger mom, I experienced health issues. At the time, nothing seemed to help. Then I began working with a nutritionist in Encinitas and it changed so many things.

In my latest Helping Professionals Series blog, I interviewed Cory Anderson, the founder and director of Integrity Counseling Group. I am happy to share about the work of this group practice helping teens in San Diego County.

I recently had the privilege of writing a Guest blog for another therapist in San Marcos, Diana Trevino of Trevino Counseling and Wellness.

The blog shares 6 tips on calmly parenting an anxious child, when you also struggle with anxiety.

I was so excited to have interviewed Dr. Willa Marquis, a San Diego OCD Treatment specialist to share her expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of OCD.

Dr. Willa Marquis is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in child and adolescent anxiety and OCD treatment.

I was happy to be quoted in the Good Trade article “Making Art Is My Playful Meditation Alternative." The article is about using process-based art as a mindfulness tool.

You find yourself in an unexpected place feeling unprepared. Unprepared to deal with it all and it’s a lot. You’re especially concerned about your children, so now you’re researching grief counseling for kids.

San Diego North County is a great place to raise kids. So many wonderful opportunities. Award-winning schools, beaches, hiking trails, and lots of near-perfect weather. While San Marcos may be known as a family-friendly community within North County, not all the kids here are happy and relaxed.

If you have ever been to therapy yourself, you know it can take some time to find the “right” therapist. The truth is it can be even harder to find the right therapist for a child struggling with anxiety. There are several reasons, but here are the basic ones.

There are a lot of therapists who provide child therapy. You’ve asked friends and family for referrals. You looked at therapist directories and read websites. Mind-boggled. Check.

You narrowed down your search. It looks like most therapists offer a consultation. How do you figure out what to ask? How do you make a decision?