Courtney Trejo

I typically begin by meeting with parents or caregivers first. This gives us space to discuss your concerns, your child’s strengths and challenges, developmental history, and goals for therapy before your child enters the process. My goal is to help families feel supported, informed, and comfortable from the very beginning.

Children and teens do not always have the words to explain what they are feeling, so emotions often show up through behavior. Therapy may be helpful if your child is experiencing anxiety, emotional outbursts, difficulty regulating emotions, behavioral changes, school stress, social difficulties, low self-esteem, grief, or major life transitions. Many families also seek therapy simply because they want additional support helping their child navigate emotions in healthy ways.

Play therapy is a developmentally appropriate and evidence-based approach that helps children express emotions, process experiences, build coping skills, and strengthen emotional regulation through play. Because children naturally communicate differently than adults, play becomes a safe and natural way for them to express thoughts and feelings that may be difficult to put into words.

Play therapy is much more than “just playing.” In play therapy, toys, creativity, movement, and activities are intentionally used to help children process emotions, strengthen communication, improve problem-solving skills, build confidence, and feel more emotionally safe and connected. Play is often a child’s most natural form of communication.

That is completely okay. Many children and teens are hesitant at first, especially when therapy feels new or unfamiliar. I focus on building safety, trust, and connection at a pace that feels comfortable for the child. Therapy does not rely only on talking. Children often communicate through play, creativity, humor, movement, and connection long before they are ready to verbalize difficult emotions.

With more than 12 years of experience working with children and teens, I bring both educational and clinical experience into the therapy space as a former middle school teacher, high school counselor, and LPC-Associate. My approach blends warmth, emotional understanding, and developmentally appropriate therapy techniques to help children and teens feel safe, connected, and understood. With over 60 hours of specialized training in Play Therapy and ongoing advanced training as a Registered Play Therapist (RPT) Trainee, I focus on helping families understand the behavior beneath the behavior whil