As humans, we don’t just want to survive, we want to thrive. But unfortunately, it’s easy to get stuck in survival mode. At DoBePlay we focus on discovering solutions that work for our clients so they can get unstuck, feel in charge, and discover what thriving looks like in their life.
What We Treat
DoBePlay has worked with individuals needing support across a wide range of therapeutic services. Whether you identify with one of many of the concerns below, we’ll work together to find solutions and discover what your path to thriving looks like.
- ADHD
- Anxiety
- Attachment issues
- Autism
- Communication issues
- Culturally specific issues
- Depression
- Grief & loss
- Life transitions
- Low self-esteem
- Marital issues
- Mood dysregulation issues
- Parent-child conflict
- Personality disorders
- Trauma
How We Provide Care
DoBePlay provides care either virtually through a secure video platform, in-person at our clinic in South Minneapolis, or in your home.
We work with clients in the following therapeutic formats:
- Children’s therapy*
- Couples therapy
- Family therapy
- Individual therapy
- Parent coaching & support
*We commonly work with school-aged children ages 6-18. However we do provide assessments for children as young as 4 years old.
Types of Treatment
We use a variety of techniques to provide the treatment and care that is right for the individual client. Sometimes multiple modalities in tandem are helpful to get an individual unstuck and on the road to discovering their thriving self.
Sandtray therapy
“Working in the sand invites the implicit world, home of our earliest attachment wounds, to take symbolic form. Sometimes it provides a road around defenses; often it lets preverbal pain emerge, sometimes to make concrete the feelings that a person has had difficulty communicating; sometimes it externalizes and contains inner anguish that has been too powerful to call to consciousness in other ways.” [ Bonnie Badenoch ]
Sandtray therapy has origins dating back to the 1900’s, although it began to be used more after World War II. In its simplest form, subjects use miniatures (figures) to show (feeling, situation, memory, etc). In doing so, our brains engage differently to facilitate verbal representation of the “story.”
This modality was encouraged by Jung as it uses metaphors and symbolism to represent feelings. Sandtray therapy is effective for both children and adults, although the focus and process varies depending on a person’s level of cognitive development.
>> Learn more about sandtray therapy
Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT)
Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT) was created to be the trauma focused technique of the modality on which it is based, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). TFCBT essentially combines initial skill development in self soothing and body awareness to prepare the client to “tell the story” of a traumatic event.
Attachment Theory
Attachment theory centers around the concept that a person’s emotional or physical needs are not fully met by caregivers in early infancy or childhood. As a result, an individual doesn’t develop sufficient neural pathways to help develop a healthy sense of self, boundaries, relationship skills and more. The focus is then to find feel safe and secure, improve relationships, and provide the individual with an opportunity to grow and transform – but not “fix” – themselves.
Attachment is important because promotes sense of security, helps regulate arousal, communicating feelings in relationship, facilitates safety to learn. People with healthy attachment also have a strong sense of competence and efficacy.
When we attune with others we allow our own internal state to shift, to come to resonate with the inner world of another. This resonance is at the heart of the important sense of “feeling felt” that emerges in close relationships. Children need attunement to feel secure and to develop well, and throughout our lives, we need attunement to feel close and connected. [ Dan Siegel, MD ]
Play Therapy Techniques
“Play therapy is a dynamic interpersonal relationship between a child (or person of any age) and a therapist trained in play therapy procedures who provides selected play materials and facilitates the development of a safe relationship for the child (or person of any age) to fully express and explore self (feelings, thoughts, experiences, and behaviors) through play, the child’s natural medium of communication for optimal growth and development.” [ Gary Landreth, 2002 ]
Our approach is based on “being” with the client, allowing the flow of session to determine whether it is directive (making suggestions to client) or non-directive (client leads, provider follow)