Work with Children and Youth
Adults often process issues by talking, children process by playing, particularly because play is the natural way children express themselves. Play and expressive therapies integrate the use of verbal counselling with play, sand play and art therapy and are very experiential. Play and expressive therapies allow children the opportunity to better work through and resolve their problems, release stress and anxiety around their worries, discover alternative healthier and adaptive behaviours to cope, and work through and heal their emotional wounds. (Click to read more)
Children may sometimes demonstrate challenging behaviours due to a variety of reasons. Monica provides a safe and supportive environment for her clients and their family to work on better understanding the underlying causes of the behaviour. Monica uses directive and non-directive approaches to help children work through and manage identified issues and concerns, and learn new coping strategies. Monica brings her extensive experience in providing therapeutic services to children and youth with challenges such as:
- Dealing with trauma and abuse
- School adjustments and transitions
- Verbal aggression or hitting and fighting
- Social anxiety
- Anxiety, worries and fears that impact functioning
- Peer relationships and difficultly making friends
- Self esteem and identity
- Self-harming behaviour
- Parental separation/divorce or remarriage
- MCFD involvement, foster care or adoption
Trauma Recovery Work
“Safety IS the treatment” Stephen Porges
Just thinking about seeing a professional to work through and heal trauma wounds can be an overwhelming and scary experience. When trust has been fractured, entering a therapeutic process can be one of the most fearful leaps of faith. This therapeutic relationship can also be a deeply profound catalyst to heal that loss of trust. Monica’s inherent belief is, as human beings…relationships are everything*. (Click to read more)
Monica prioritizes the development of a strong therapeutic relationship to increase her client’s comfort and sense of safety. She believes in the inherent sacredness of the client-therapist relationship and the ability of the therapeutic journey to provide restorative experiences. With remarkable insight, compassion and commitment to trauma recovery work, she helps clients navigate though the scariness of their lived experience and find a greater sense of meaning and well-being in their lives.
Monica uses a combination of somatic based and expressive therapies. She uses experiential modalities, which help clients connect to their deep inner wisdom which is much more than their thoughts and feelings. Monica’s work specifically focuses on working with implicit trauma memory which is integral to healing from trauma.
*As beautifully said by and exuded by Bonnie Badenoch.
Parent/Caregiver Support
Relationships matter. Strengthening bonds one connection at a time.
Monica recognizes the important role of parents (biological and adoptive) and their connection with their child (at any age). She supports parents to find ways to connect with their children and better understand their loved one’s emotions and behaviours. Monica’s aim is to support parents in exploring the possible causes and meaning behind their children’s challenging behaviours. Monica equips parents to enhance parent/child communication and better familial relationships. (Click to read more)
Monica also recognizes the important role of caregivers with the children in their lives and the added support needed to create healthy and reparative attachment experiences. This includes caregivers of children and youth in foster care or residential settings.
Monica specializes in the area of providing parenting support focusing on issues such as:
- concerns about their children’s behaviours or emotional challenges
- not being able to effectively deal with tantrums
- a parent’s own anxiety around their child’s problems
- wanting to improve the parent/child relationship
- boundaries and limit setting
- supporting their child through transitions
The strongest pathway to self-regulation is co-regulation. Neuroscience supports the healing power of supportive caregiver/loved ones interactions.
Monica coaches parents/caregivers with:
- increasing their own confidence and skills with affect regulation
- specific skills to support their child
- understand what is fuelling the behaviour to reduce symptoms
- assisting their child to digest big emotional experiences
- assisting their child to increase adaptive behaviours
- increasing their child’s skills and confidence with their emotions
- improving quality of family life
Presentations
Building capacity. Informing practice.
Monica provides training that builds the capacity of clinical and non-clinical staff in community, school and therapeutic settings. She curates workshops to fit specific professional development needs, and offers trainings and workshops in the following areas:
- Working with children and youth using play and expressive therapy
- Trauma-informed practice,
- Working with trauma and trauma recovery
- Self-injury behaviour
- Vicarious trauma
- Boundaries and wellness practices
- Addressing burnout and vicarious trauma in the workplace
- Emotion-focussed school support
Monica believes in the power of human resiliency and the importance of building the capacity of paraprofessionals and non-clinical workers because they play a vital role on the therapy spectrum. As a trainer, she brings with her stimulating stories and a style that promotes engagement and facilitates learning.
Consultation
Building capacity. Informing practice.
Monica brings with her years of experience overseeing clinical programs, providing clinical supervision individually and consultations with teams in community agencies. She is a registered supervisor with ACCT.
Monica can provide single session, ongoing or group clinical consultation to counsellors and clinical consultations with teams in community agencies and schools.
Monica brings with her over 26 years of working in the community-based social services field with children, youth, adults and families as a therapist and community educator. She has worked in clinical settings for various programs and providing clinical supervision to clinical and non-clinical programs that focus on family preservation and re-unification programming, complex intergenerational trauma, and trauma-informed practice.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Monica at 778-320-9357.
