What is Therapy? How Does Therapy Work?

By Jolynn-Marie Wagner, Ph.D.
People often ask how does therapy work or what type of therapist I am.

My training is in traditional medical model counseling, talk, cognitive behavioral, and play therapy with a developmental psychology and neuropsychology perspective. My training and work experience has included severely disturbed children who live in psychiatric hospitals to developmental "normal" children going through a life change in their family. Along the continuum, I have worked with children with debilitating psychiatric disorders, autism, trauma, attachment disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, and life changes such as divorce.

In order to better help the children I worked with, I sought additional training in areas such as expressive play therapies, attachment-based therapies (not to be confused with holding or rebirthing therapies), yoga therapy, nature-based therapies, relaxation, EMDR, sensory integration, Brain Gym, and herbal/nutritional treatment. Still, I call myself a child therapist, as I do not exclusively use one modality of treatment. While I have a set of parameters, I match the family’s values with the child’s needs and design a treatment that works best. Sometimes the initial request is not a match. I have had parents requesting traditional supportive cognitive behavioral therapy in conjunction with medication who ended up trying and being successful with yoga therapy and a naturopath. I have also had parents coming in requesting "alternative only" while home schooling who I recommended re-evaluating their choice to home school and referring to a psychiatrist for a medication evaluation.

I believe the match between client and modality, helping to create healthy environments, and the participation of the client makes therapy work. However, that said, that is not all of therapy. I cannot say enough about the relationship that is established between the therapist and child/family. In that therapeutic relationship trust and bonds are built that I believe are key to the success of treatment.

I am trained in traditional modes of psychotherapy  such as talk therapy, play methods including various forms of expressive play therapies (art, sand tray, nature therapy), interventions involving neurological processing (EMDR, Brain Gym, Sensory Integration) and therapies that connect thought and feeling to the body (relaxation, therapeutic yoga, Brain Gym). I do not use one type of therapy exclusively but create a treatment plan that matches an individual’s need with the most appropriate method.

I believe each child and adult has strengths that can be built upon to help create a happier, safer way of living. My job is to facilitate this process and to find ways to encourage those strengths and create better coping skills for those weaker areas. I also believe parents are integral parts of children’s treatment. I try to offer parents ways to help their child be successful at home based on what works in therapy.