Irene Studwell, LCSW, PLLC

• Children, ages 5 and up, though often I prefer to see younger children with a parent
• Pre-teens and adolescents
• Adults
• Couples

Children

My work with children (and everyone else, for that matter) has long been based on attachment theory, which explains our biological need to attach to others, beginning with our earliest moments of  relationship.  These early experiences contribute to the unconscious maps that we all follow to find safety and security in relationships for most of our lives.

For this reason, my work with young children usually includes their parents.  Kids might  spend 50 minutes a week with me, while their parents, whose approval and love is the primary need, have a full-time and essential presence.   Most children I see think they’re coming to my office to play, which is true, but the world of play includes opportunities for mastery of new skills, improvement of communication, and different ways to recognize, express, and understand sometimes-difficult feelings.

Individuals (adolescents and adults)

Although I use the same theoretical background in all my work, adolescence sometimes seems like a separate universe.  It’s quite a job to negotiate that transition from being a child to operating as an autonomous adult out in the world, and these days, sometimes the challenges feel immense.  Often, therapy itself seems like a parallel process to the teen years ( for many adults, too).  We start with external influences—usually parents first, then extended family, friends, school—and eventually reach an inner world, where purpose, direction, and feeling come from a flexible, but sturdy sense of ourselves.

Couples

PACT (the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy) is the framework I use most to work with couples.  This model (which integrates neuroscience, attachment theory, and emotional regulation) teaches us how to create secure-functioning relationships.  I’m currently a PACT Level 1 Clinician, but am continuing to train in this model, because its focus on couples as a two-person system (“we” not “I”) and its use of new research in attachment theory and neuroscience appeals to me.   A session might feel like an open-ended three-way conversation, but the idea is to help discover how partners can be “wired” differently and how those differences can be overcome to create a stronger intimate connection.