Expressive Child & Family Therapies

02/21/2026

The child is only the mirror

Let’s put the focus where it ought to be, working from the inside out - being the best version of ourselves and living what we hope to see growing in our children.

It all starts with us 🤲🏻💗

02/12/2026

Our children find themselves in our eyes🥹

02/08/2026

02/02/2026

We cannot model to our children skills we do not have.

More often than not, parents are repeating patterns unconsciously, often stuck in their own bubbles of shame and inadequacy.

It’s so painful to face our children’s struggles.

And we cannot be with our children in pain because our reactions to their pain are impossible to be with.

Perhaps because we were left unnoticed in our feelings and struggles as children.

Insight or technique alone will not heal this pattern.

What heels is building capacity - the ability to remain present with emotion as we are feeling it. Being with the discomfort without jumping to fix or flee. By admitting when we simply do not know the answer. This how we choose relationship over self-protection This how we stay in relationship - with others and with ourselves.

This is the re-parenting that heals - whether done with our outer children inner child or with other adults.

Repair begins when we are willing to stay at the edge of our own limitation and say - to a child, a partner, or ourselves:

“I don’t understand yet, but I’m not leaving. I’m right here and together we will figure this out.”

01/29/2026

ADHD is not a behavioural problem.

It is an executive functioning problem.

It is our job to help kids understand how brains work, and more importantly, the unique ways that their particular brain works.

Then we can provide strategies and accommodations for the ways it is “under construction”🚧🧰.

And to utilize the special strengths and abilities their brain does have that others may not.

01/20/2026

Early lessons in safety and security between mother and baby may not be measurable or visible, but they are powerful.

Beginning with pregnancy, scientists are learning maternal anxiety, stress and fear can be passed on to a baby in utero, specifically in the last trimester. Additionally, a mother‘s unrepaired emotional scars from her own upbringing adversely impact her maternal instincts.

Maternal stress and anxiety pass insecurity to a daughter through touch, vocal tones, and breathing patterns and later through behaviour and choices that put both mother and baby in harms way.

Dr Shore, a neurobiologist who studies infant brain development maintains that early experiences can positively and negatively influence the organization of the brain, and that these experiences are embedded in the attachment relationship.

He maintains that attachment experiences, specifically impact the development of the right brain which begins a growth spurt in the last trimester of pregnancy and continues through the first year after birth.

We must understand the vital role of support systems in pregnancy.

Emotional, physical, mental, social & community support systems. 🩵

01/14/2026

Mothers are bombarded with misguided advice about infant and young children’s needs, especially sleep.

For an infant or toddler falling asleep is a moment of separation and must be understood this way. Infants have not changed since we were hunting and gathering, but our modern world somehow expects babies to sleep alone in cribs for extended hours. Only recently, the science that supports keeping mom and baby close during sleep is gaining recognition.

We are learning, or relearning, about infant sleep and how normal it is for babies to wake frequently. They are designed to feel the nearness of the mother‘s body in order to feel calm and avoid unnecessary hormones that the body releases when it senses danger. Breast-fed babies benefit from frequent feedings throughout the night, so the closer they are to mom the easier it is for both.

For a baby separation from the mother‘s body means danger. Too many parents don’t realize how damaging hours of separation can be for dependent newborns.

In his book, Nighttime Parenting, Dr. William Sears explains how and why babies sleep differently than adults. Little ones are designed for survival, so they wake easily to co-regulate themselves with their mother. Sears explains that infants who wake up alone feel startled as they search for their mothers. Increased adrenaline and heart rate lead to crying and difficulty going back to sleep.

Babies build a robust physiology through closeness with their parents during the night. As adults, they experience fewer sleep disturbances than adults who slept alone as infants.

01/01/2026

Especially Joy & Kindness ✌🏼

Here’s to a fabulously brave 2026

12/28/2025

Your body knows the story of how early love felt.

In the first two years of life, before memory becomes explicit, “thinking” isn’t thinking at all - it’s feeling.

Infant and toddler “thought” is a body-based, emotional experience informed by the early environment.

Since the thinking brain develops some time after age three, for a baby, feelings are facts. Emotions are stored in the body and create a certain reality or belief system.

The world is safe and so am I or The world is scary and I’m all alone.

Stored sensations like these become implicit memories. Implicit memories reside deep within the limbic structures of the brain, silently whispering messages of safety or danger to the rest of the body.

Early experiences impact the developing central nervous system through feelings and bodily sensations. In this way, “remembering” things from your early years is more of a sensation than a conscious awareness.

Early emotional experiences literally become embedded in the architecture of our brain.

When an infant’s vulnerable nervous system picks up that things are not safe nature calls forth a fear response. Fear releases cortisol and adrenaline, which can be toxic for developing brain regions.

When fear isn’t soothed and happens regularly, a baby stores the fearful sensations in her cells, building a body and brain poised for danger.

Understanding implicit memory explains why sometimes we have no idea why we act the way we do.

We can’t see the distress living in our bodies.

We are a society hungry for love but wary of human connection 💞

12/25/2025

Your purpose is not the thing you do. It is the thing that happens in others when you do what you do.⭐️

Grateful to have a seat at the table.

My life has been so profoundly touched & healed on this journey ❤️

All the healing and belonging for 2026. 🌎
Happy Winter Season 🩵

12/23/2025

When we lose our temper our amygdala, the emotional alarm center of the brain, overrides rational thought and floods our system with stress chemicals that keep us reactive for hours.

But when we can notice and interrupt the impulse and instead pause or choose calm, our prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for logic and self-control, strengthens its connections and reshapes our brain over time, making it easier to think clearly, stay balanced, and avoid being controlled by fleeting emotions.

12/21/2025

“Savouring is an evidence-based psychological tool that you can use without adding any time to your day.

It has a significant impact on wellbeing, mental and physical health, and also improves relationships and job performance

What will you be savouring this holiday season and as we say goodbye to 2025?

😋⭐️💗🤩🎄🏔️⛄️❄️ 🧠👁️🐶🐹🌸🌞🌎