Philosophy

Educational therapy plays a unique role in a student’s life. Combining therapeutic practices with educational strategies and skills, students learn and heal at the same time. They increase their self-awareness (about their learning challenges, their preferences, their ability to regulate their emotional responses) while learning to implement skills that assist them directly with their academic achievement. We know that if learning takes place in one area, it likely will occur in other domains as well. The educational therapist is intentionally placed to augment the learning that takes place both inwardly and outwardly.

The field of brain science and neuroplasticity inspires a deep curiosity in me about how the brain works and how to create optimal conditions for new connections and breakthroughs in learning. The core belief that change is possible engenders the work hopeful even when a student’s struggles are significant. The educational therapist’s understanding of brain development ensures that the environment will be conducive to learning. With intervention, all brains, even those of atypical learners, can integrate new knowledge and strategies, in essence, making significant cognitive leaps.

Demystifying learning differences is a central goal of educational therapy. One of the most rewarding aspects of this work is helping the client to see the good in themselves, to own their strengths and gifts. One of the ET’s chief concerns is to help the client see themselves as capable of learning, and to change any negative views they may have already developed about their ability to learn. A student’s self-perception affects their sense of self their entire life. Self-perception is either their greatest roadblock or greatest motivator, and the ET is savvy enough to listen to both.

Language is my portal to educational therapy

We all have stories to tell, we all have important words to speak. Children are no exception. They desire to be heard and to know their words matter. This is a universal right, not just one available to students who are naturally eloquent on paper. This is available to kids who struggle to string words together or who look at a blank piece of paper and panic because they don't know how to fill it. The goal of my practice ensures that each student is successful. Students feel like they have something to say and the words to say it. Removing anxiety and frustration, students can operate from a place of calm and maybe even a place of play. By widening the portal for understanding and learning, writing becomes an act of self-expression available to all. 

In the safety of a relationship that honors essence over product, students are more able to engage the (sometimes) arduous process of improving their writing. Working on writing concepts targeted to that student's processing weakness, slowly the quality of writing improves. Nothing happens though, when a student is plagued with writer's block or assumes the task is beyond their capabilities; the need to be perfect the first time around, the need to not be humiliated, must first be ameliorated before the actual "writing instruction" can begin. 

Students learn about their unique voice, the special contribution they can make to the world by simply being who they are. Once that is established, they begin to trust the words inside them and allow them to flow freely.