Kicked Out of Two Daycares? You Don’t Want There to Be a Third.
Intensive therapy for parents of toddlers and preschoolers in Indiana
✔ Virtual therapy across Indiana
✔ In-person or virtual in Bloomington, IN
✔ Services in English or Russian
The Daycare Is Calling AGAIN.
Your child has been hitting and kicking peers and teachers. So, you need to pick up your kid (how many times have they called this month?) because the daycare doesn't have enough teachers to support your child one-on-one. You call off work again and wonder:
How do other parents do it? Will my child grow up to be abusive? (The painful question you don’t ask out loud.) Am I the only one?
You are not.
Parenting a child with challenging behaviors carries a lot of invisible pain. Other parents are struggling, too. They leave public places when their children explode or avoid going out altogether so they don't have to deal with their child's public meltdowns and tantrums.
Your child has already been kicked out of daycare. Now you're wondering: Will this daycare ask us to leave, too? Where will my child go?
You can learn how to help your child.
Children with really big behaviors need therapy every day. Who has the time to take their child to therapy every single day?! Instead, I will teach you how to do 5-minute daily therapeutic play (Special Time) with your child at home, understand your child's emotions and behaviors on a deeper level, and reduce how often your child's behavioral explosions trigger you. You'll learn what words to use and when to use them, depending on your child's level of dysregulation.
I invite you to start this work early, while your child is little. When children get bigger and stronger, the damage caused by their anger, aggression, and destructive behaviors can become quite significant, and it can be harder to engage them in therapy. On the other hand, very young children are naturally drawn to play and love playing with their parents. Special Time is at the heart of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). It's an effective way to decrease children's aggressive and destructive behaviors and help them develop more positive ways of connecting with others.
Parents I've worked with have watched their children go from attacking peers and teachers at daycare, or becoming violent with a parent to avoid going to school to enjoying school and making friends. At home, they've experienced more joyful moments and felt more confident helping their children when they're struggling. I've seen parents in tears of happiness at how much their toddler or preschooler has improved. And I've heard parents say over and over that they wish their own parents had done this work, since most of us weren't taught what to do with our emotions apart from shutting them down.
I'd love for you to experience what it's like to help your child through an emotional tornado and come out the other side together, feeling connected and loving one another again. As you weather your child's emotional storm, you feel confident about what to do. You no longer care so much about what others think of you and your kid. Instead, you patiently, kindly, and lovingly help your child come back. You might need some time afterward to decompress, but as your child breathes easier, starts smiling, and plays again, you proudly realize, “I just f*ng did this! My kid lost it, and now he is doing better because of me!”
You can help your child. Let's get to work!
Professional Endorsements
Because of my commitment to ongoing learning and collaboration in child therapy, I have built strong professional relationships with clinicians, professors, and other professionals in related fields. I asked several of them to share what they believe potential clients should know about working with me.
The following reflections were offered voluntarily and without compensation.
I’m here to help
You are already doing so much for your child. Therapy can help you build more connection and joy together and give you the tools for the hard moments.