* Individual, Couple, Family Psychotherapy 

* Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Training

* Spiritual Mentoring

* Assistance with finding your purpose and mission in life

* Parenting Support & Training

* Support for the recently separated/divorced

* Grief Counseling

* Emotional Education & Management to improve functioning

* Classes and Workshops

* Bilingual Services (English/Spanish)

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MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY

Marriage and family therapists are mental health professionals with extensive training in relationships and group dynamics.  We are trained to provide psychotherapy to individuals, couples, children, families, and groups experiencing difficulties communicating and resolving conflicts or adjusting to life's challenges.  We are also consultants who can offer our expertise in group dynamics to corporations, schools, churches, and other settings where on-going conflicts have interfered with collaboration and productivity.

Marriage and Family therapy  is a therapeutic approach that  focuses on the quality of relationships recognizing the importance of family attachments and bonds on the emotional, psychological and physical health and wellbeing of the individual. 

Family therapists diagnose and treat emotional and mental health disorders within the context of the family, couple, or work group  in which the individual is experiencing symptoms or difficulties. If a client chooses individual treatment, a family therapist maintains a systems approach, or rather a focus on the individual client as well as on the relationships he or she is involved in and on the quality of the relationships as well as how these relationships influence the individual.

My therapeutic approach is holistic, experiential,  and psychospiritual, and it is rooted in family systems theory, cognitive behavioral theory, mindfulness, and emotion focused therapy.  Treatment is usually brief, ten to twelve sessions on average, solution focused, and determined by the clients' specific needs, goals, and motivation in treatment.  Therapist and client formulate goals and objectives, and assess progress jointly.

Clients are free to ask questions, provide feedback, and request changes in the treatment. Clients can terminate services at any time, but preferably after discussing their reasons with the therapist prior to ending their treatment. 

At the beginning of treatment couples will be invited to take the Gottman Relationship Checkup, an on-line assessment which I call an "x-ray" of their relationship.  The results are reviewed with the couple and implemented during the course of therapy. 

For more information on Marriage and Family Therapy and on the education and credentialing requirements of Marriage and Family Therapists please log on to The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy www.aamft.org.

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Sandplay Therapy

"The hands know how to solve a riddle with which the intellect has wrestled in vain."  Carl Gustav Jung

Whether we are aware of it or not we are all on a "heroe's/heroine's journey", humanity's path of growing in consciousness.  Often the call to embark on this journey towards increased awareness is marked by loneliness, loss, grief, anxiety, or depression. These are signs that we need to find balance, meaning, and bring wholeness back into our lives.

Individuation is the "lifelong process of realizing one's potentialities", our opportunity to access our inner resources and to discover our essence, our true Self, with a capital "S".

Sandplay therapy is a journey of self discovery guided by the caring and supportive presence of a therapist who has experienced the process and is committed to her own personal and spiritual growth.

What is sandplay therapy?

Sandplay therapy is an expressive arts/play therapy based on the theories of C.G.Jung and Dora Kalff, Swiss analysts.

How does sandplay therapy work?

Sandplay therapy offers a safe, "free and protected space" in which the client is invited to utilize the available materials, sand, water, objects from nature and the collection of miniatures which has been carefully selected by the therapist, who becomes an empathic witness of the client's experience and the unfolding of his/her journey of transformation.

Two sandtrays are available, one dry and one wet, which are the "canvasses" the client uses to create a three dimensional art image using objects from the collection on the shelves.  Images can depict a dream, an experience, or some other aspect of a client's reality or inner world.

The client is free to play, create, and "be" in silence, if he/she wishes, so that symbolic images can emerge spontaneously from within the level of mind from which dreams, inspirations, and insights emerge.  This level of mind, the unconscious, has the answers to the questions we seek and the healing energies to promote growth, positive change, and healing in our lives.  Words are not necessary since sandplay images can express more about our inner world and experiences than we can effectively verbalize.

Like dreams or artwork, sandplay can offer us symbolic information and can inspire us to look within providing us with greater understanding and insight into ourselves and our life.  Interpretations are not necessary as our mind knows and understands what we need in order to promote emotional and spiritual healing and growth.

Sandplay therapy takes us back to nature, by offering sand, water, and objects from nature which invite us to connect to our instinctual, playful and creative self, thus giving us the opportunity to be more spontaneous and increasingly more aware of our inner healing resources.

Sandplay is an active meditation, a naturally relaxing experience.  Often clients report feeling calmer and more centered after completing a tray.

Sandplay therapy is effective for adults, teens, and children.  Children will be naturally drawn to sandplay process because it speaks their language, the language of play, metaphor, and symbols.  The vast array of toys and miniatures provides them with a rich vocabulary with which to express their inner world.

Adults will benefit from sandplay because symbols, imagery, and metaphor are the languages of the Soul and healing takes place when we provide it with a safe means to express itself.

In order to practice sandplay therapy, the therapist must undergo his or her own therapeutic process as well as receive training.  For the last ten years I have been training in sandplay therapy and have undergone my own process which has been invaluable to my own personal as well as professional growth.   If you are interested in learning more about sandplay therapy, please feel free to contact me, Daisy M. Navarro  at (305) 608-2540 or log on to www.sandplay.org and www.sandsearch.org.  

Play Therapy 

"To grow up to be healthy, very young children do not need to know how to read, but they do need to know how to play." Fred Rogers

Play is the language children use to express themselves.  Toys are the words and symbols with which they communicate.

 "It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self."  D.W. Winnicott, British pediatrician (1896-1971)

Since 1994 I have been training in play therapy and participating in supervision groups.  Play therapy recognizes that play is the language of children and toys are their words.  Play therapy is one of  the most effective approaches in engaging children in therapy.

I received certification as a Registered Play Therapist - Supervisor by the national Association for Play Therapy in California and continue to attend trainings and conferences regularly.  If you are interested in learning more about play therapy, please log on to www.apt.org.

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