Welcome

Louise Del Maestro, L.C.S.W.

Opening to more heartfelt, real, and trusting relationships, one child/family at a time.

"I'll save you," said the monkey as he lovingly scooped up the fish and placed it onto the highest branch.

Frustrated with your life, a repeating pattern, a family member, or a co-worker? Don't know quite what to do?

Sometimes, we just don't know what we don't know. It's impossible. But we can surrender to what is, swallow our pride, our fear and our self-will, and seek the help we need. Help is here for the asking.

Child, Adolescent, and Family Therapeutic Services with a Spiritual Counselor

Children who have experienced a trauma of any kind, manifest similar symptoms a trained eye can decipher, explain, and help parents to understand. With interventions and modeling from the therapist, children can learn to relax, trust life and become happier human beings by replacing old distorted thought patterns with Truth. Adoption, childhood trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), ADHD, separation anxiety, childhood grief and loss, temper tantrums, controlling behaviors, and oppositional defiant behaviors can be worked with and changed. Louise's experience and training in present-centered, attachment and body psychotherapy help clients form new heartfelt relationships resulting in higher self-esteem and happier lives.

Sessions focus on providing children the ability to recognize feelings that lie beneath their current shadow expressions of fear, anger, rage, terror, hiding, anxiety, or resistance, thereby achieving insights into their behaviors and attitudes. Once recognized and seen for what they are, present occurrences can then organically shift into responsible and caring behaviors and interactions. When the "front door" doesn't work, she uses the "back door" approach where the emotions are exaggerated until the futility of the suffering is acutely experienced and another choice is sought and ultimately chosen. Often, working with and not against the resistance a client is presenting is key to the process.

Sessions also focus on teaching parents how to work through conflicts, and how to create a healthy and effective parental subsystem. Parents will be taught the cutting edge relational skills needed to provide their children with feelings of safety/security, love, discipline and consistency.

Sessions for individuals and groups focus on self-awareness and transforming consciousness. A transpersonal approach is utilized. The word "transpersonal" comes from the Latin "trans," meaning beyond and through, and "persona," meaning mask or personality. Transpersonal therapy is truly holistic, encompassing all levels of human experience, including the spiritual, seeking to reveal the person behind the personality. Transpersonal psychology draws it's methodology from the spiritual traditions of the world, and integrates them with contemporary psychology.

Presence-centered body psychotherapy is a way of being present to and accepting whatever is here in the moment, feeling into bodily sensations while increasing self-awareness and choices where habitual behavior was once the seemingly sole option. She also utilizes Cognitive-behavioral, Coherence, Interpersonal, Narrative, Play, Meditation and Pathwork to assist her practice.

The Parent-Child Therapeutic Model

Child and parent BOTH engage in the therapeutic process together. This model is implemented until the child reaches the age of about fifteen or whenever individuation instead of attachment is the therapeutic goal. Louise feels the parent-child dyad is the most productive model for healing and thus invites the parent(s) to share in the therapeutic process. It is important that mother and/or father and child are able to work through issues together which then optimizes their bond instead of deferring it to the therapist.

Family Therapy

Family therapy sessions are often recommended when the family dynamic seen in total would be beneficial. There are many times when the "problem child" absorbs and expresses the negativity for the entire family and the "perfect child" the positivity, while yet another child may go virtually unseen. These dynamics are detrimental to all children in the long run if the roles go unconscious. Many times the "good child" as well as the "unseen child" will defer symptoms until later in life, while the "naughty child" manifests symptoms now. Louise is trained to help the family bring to consciousness the patterns or symptoms that have proven painful or stressful, allowing family members to make a new, more harmonious choices.

"Supernanny" Therapeutic Services

Following the model on the famous TV reality show, Supernanny, Louise enters the home to witness first hand the family unit. The family forms unique energy patterns seen and unseen. Louise brings to light these patterns so different patterns can be established. She teaches cutting edge attachment parenting techniques that work to bring the family back into harmony. Parents regain control so children feel safe and secure enabling positive interactions to become the norm. This option serves best when smaller children are involved.

Intensives

Intensives are a therapeutic option where a series of intense, closely spaced sessions are offered. Specifically, this is three days of three-hour sessions with two therapists. This option may initiate the therapy or come somewhere down the line, but its an advantage traditional weekly sessions cannot match. The speed at which the "crucible" develops -- therapy starts to happen -- is often unparalleled. People are able to experience greater depth and trust more rapidly. This quick start helps people stop "dancing around" and instead drop into the real underlying truth or distortion rather quickly. Developing in a matter of hours rather than weeks or months, empirical evidence suggests this therapeutic process operates more efficaciously.

Clients who have not responded optimally too less intensive interventions may respond well to intensive treatment. Clients may chose an annual intensive to deepen their process. Some clients find it more convenient to come for treatment for a briefer period of time, rather than stretch out their treatment. This may be especially true for clients who have difficulty adjusting their work schedules, or who come in from out of town.

Presence-centered Body Psychotherapy Individual Sessions

Committed clients choose individual sessions to gain insights to resolving discord and to living more fulfilling lives. Present-centered, body psychotherapy is the basis for these sessions where a shift in consciousness is the goal.

Group Therapy

The value of groups is that they inform the client they are not alone with their feelings, while the client is able to witness and engage in intimate work presented by their peers. Therapeutic gains are maximized in this shared process where another's work may be experienced as one's own.