Families & children
parents, children & infants
All children want to connect
it just looks different in different bodies
In my experience, if we help a child feel more comfortable in their body, we help them connect more deeply with the people who love them. And frankly, it’s the same for the parents.
Before words
A child has a whole conversation happening in their body. A baby curling into a parent’s chest is organizing around safety. A toddler who keeps returning to the same movement pattern is working something out. The way a small child reaches — or doesn’t — tells a story about what they’ve experienced and what they need next.
This intelligence is ancient, and it’s precise. It develops through attunement and accurate reflection of an infant’s communication.
There’s a saying every new parent hears: I wish this baby came with a manual. But in many ways, the manual is already there — in the nonverbals, in the body’s expression, yours and theirs. These signals are visible and they have meaning.
When there’s been a disruption — a difficult birth, trouble nursing, separation, illness, upheaval at home — all of these get in the way of the reciprocal communication between parent and child that early development depends on.
And beneath disruption, there is often anxiety. Anxiety tends to bloom in the dark.
What Brings Families Here?
Families come to me for different reasons.
Developmental delays. Retained reflexes. A birth that left its imprint on the child’s nervous system. Sensory issues that no one has been able to explain. Preverbal trauma. A child whose body runs high — or low — and can’t seem to settle. A parent who’s lost the joy under the weight of caretaking.
Sometimes families come because something happened — a difficult beginning, a medical event, a period of separation. Sometimes they come because nothing is exactly wrong, but something hasn’t come together the way they hoped.
Whatever brought you here, the body is where we begin.
The Work
This work happens best in child-focused family sessions, because children are motivated to move by desire — and nothing is more exciting than moving toward and away from the people they love.
Through Body-Mind Centering®, somatic developmental movement, and relational attunement, I support infants and children in finding their natural movement pathways while helping parents read and respond to what their child’s body is already communicating.
Children develop at different paces. Some may need a little — or a lot — of help clarifying their movement patterns and discovering their inner power and joy in movement.
Once we’ve established freedom of movement, if your child’s nervous system runs high — or low — it can be remarkably advantageous to introduce rhythmic movement and reflex integration. We’re talking about organizing your child’s body and nervous system so they can approach learning and relating with a strong sense of self.
Successful children feel more interested, more curious, and more welcome.
Parents
This work doesn’t just happen to the child. It happens between you.
Part of what we’re doing together is helping you become more fluent in your child’s body language — so you can trust what you’re seeing, respond with confidence, and feel the connection you came for.
Sometimes parents need their own sessions first. Sometimes the work starts with the parent’s own history — the attachment patterns that got handed down, the birth experience that hasn’t been fully processed, the grief that arrived with the baby alongside the joy.
I hold space for all of it. This is family work, which means the whole family system is in the room — even when it’s just you and me.
Pre- and Perinatal Work
I hold a specialty in pre- and perinatal psychology — the period from conception through the first months of life.
This includes birth processing (for both parent and child), preverbal trauma, the nervous system imprint of a difficult beginning, and the subtle but significant ways a child’s early experience shapes how they move through the world.
If you had a complicated birth, a NICU stay, a pregnancy that carried fear or loss — those experiences live in the body. Yours and your child’s. This work can help both of you complete what didn’t get to finish.
Intensives for Families
If you’re coming from outside Portland, or if you want to do concentrated work in a shorter time, a child-focused family intensive may be the right fit.
Three days. Parent sessions, child sessions, and parent-child sessions each day. A pre-session before you arrive and a follow-up after.
I design it around what your family actually needs. We figure that out together in the consultation.