Stephanie Panico LMFT

I have extensive experience working with adolescents who required a residential level of care (24/7 supervision and support outside of the home). I am able to connect well with teens, even those who might be reluctant to participate in therapy.

As you can imagine, teenagers who require placement outside of the home have experienced and participated in significant family conflict. As a residential therapist, I worked closely with teens, their parents, and their siblings to repair past hurts and to develop healthier, more stable relationships within the family.

The main goal in all of my therapy sessions is to improve empathy, self-awareness, and communication skills. As a result, I am able to help my clients improve all of their relationships- with partners, friends, children, parents, and other significant individuals in their lives.

I think that therapy works best when insights are arrived at organically. My hope is that our sessions will feel like an authentic conversation, one in which you are free to show up as your whole self. As your therapist, I will observe your individual emotions and interactions between you and your family members as they occur and will point out patterns to help you better understand yourself. This allows me to offer gentle coaching in the moment to help you make changes that last.

As a Marriage and Family Therapist, I am uniquely trained to view individuals in the context of their relationships. I understand that each individual is affected by their interactions with others. It is my goal as a therapist to help you understand how you have been shaped b y past experiences and how to build more fulfilling relationships moving forward.

Sand tray therapy allows clients to explore themes differently than in talk therapy. In our brains, language is processed on the left side, while more creative expression, like symbolism, is processed on the right. When emotions or experiences become "stuck", clients may be unable to use words to describe them. Sand tray therapy involves choosing small figures to represent certain aspects of themselves and placing them thoughtfully in the sand, helping to identify and explore new insights.