Psychotherapy, EMDR, and Play Therapy
For Children, Adolescents, and Adults
It’s easy to avoid your feelings, and it can be hard to let yourself feel and express them. When you come to therapy, I will foster an environment where you can feel safe enough to experience and express what can be overwhelming elsewhere. Often times without realizing it, our past continues to live with us, coloring our experiences and coming out in patterns that we replay. In the safety of the therapeutic relationship, we can explore those patterns and understand how they came to be and how they continue to impact your life. And through understanding we can change those patterns – for however much the past may influence us, we are not defined by it. Through insight and self-exploration, you can develop parts of yourself you may not have known were there – areas of strength and resourcefulness that we all have inside us. I aim to help you become your full self, feeling all your feelings with self-compassion and acceptance. Together, we can work to develop your sense of meaning and purpose, connect with yourself and others, be present in your relationships, and make choices that allow you to live the life you want. I provide individual therapy to children, adolescents and adults. My practice uses a psychodynamic base, to which I add mindfulness, play therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to further enhance growth and healing.
EMDR
EMDR was initially developed to treat trauma, but it is an excellent and multifaceted tool for helping to break the cycle of long established patterns – especially those that continue to hurt us. It is used to treat many conditions including PTSD, depression, anxiety, panic disorders, phobias, and chronic pain. EMDR works on traumatic memories, processing them such that the emotional and physical responses are removed or significantly decreased. The memories remain, but they become incorporated into one’s life story, leaving behind the significant pain they once contained. I have seen the profound impact that EMDR can have on one’s life, their inner world, and their relationship with themselves and others, in addition to ameliorating whatever symptoms brought them to therapy.
Child-Centered Play Therapy
With children I primarily use child-centered play therapy, through which they are able to express their internal experience non-verbally, using their innate language of play. Child-centered play therapy recognizes the child’s strengths and abilities despite whatever difficulties may have brought them to therapy. Practicing in this way, I respect the child’s innate knowledge of their own needs and their ability to heal when provided with the right therapeutic space and tools. I help children to understand the themes of their play, the emotions they are expressing, and to gain greater self-reliance and independence, thereby growing through whatever may have brought them to treatment.
About Rebecca
I am a native Brooklynite and still call Brooklyn my home. I earned a Master of Social Work from New York University in 2006. I have been practicing psychotherapy for nearly 20 years. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Earth & Environmental Science from Wesleyan University in 2002. Though I no longer dance, I find that the dance major, and choreography in particular, continues to influence my work as a therapist. The creativity, connectivity, and need to put the pieces together in choreography continues to find a place in my work, whether it be through play therapy, talk therapy, or EMDR. I also practice mindfulness and meditation in my daily life. These practices not only improve my life, but enhance my work as a therapist, both in the kind of care I can provide and in that I can teach these skills to those with whom I work. I am a Registered Play Therapist, meaning that I am certified in play therapy. I have practiced play therapy for almost 10 years and have taken many courses and received much supervision in play therapy. I am also certified in EMDR, which means that in addition to basic EMDR training, I received more training and supervision so as to provide a higher level of EMDR treatment. Additionally, I provide free and low cost EMDR based therapy to post-9/11 veterans through the Headstrong Project.
