Lake
Norman Children's TherapyShoreway Family Therapeutic Services
Laverne Fesperman, MSW, LCSW
Laverne Fesperman, MSW,
LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who received
her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from North Carolina State, and
received her Master of Social Work from the University of South
Carolina.
Laverne has worked a total of 30 years with Mecklenburg County
Government in several divisions including foster care, adoptions,
adult protective services, and mental health/developmental
disabilities.
Her experience includes
providing therapy to both children and adults as well as supervising
10 social workers in the Adult Protective Services division for 4 of
those years.
-
- Served as a trainer for UNC-CH Cares (Center for Aging Resource Exchange) in their Core Curriculum for Adult services and Adult Mental Health curriculum for 8 years.
- Trained special education teaches in Lithuania on the subjects of autism and reactive attachment disorder for APPLE (American Professional Partnership for Lithuanian Education).
- Co-authored an article which appeared in the profession journal, Zero to Three entitled "Theraplay Reaches Difficult to Engage Children in Foster Care" with Sandra Linderman of the Theraplay Institue.
Serving as the ZFive, Infant Mental Health Mentor from 2007 to present. http:www.ZFive.org.
More Information on Therapeutic Interventions
FloorTime
FloorTime is a systematic way of working with children developed
by Dr. Stanley Greenspan which helps children climb the
developmental ladder. It involves parents and therapist
getting down on the floor and playing with a child, “with purpose,”
in order to increase reciprocity of interaction between adult and
child.
The play is lead by the child, with the adult following their
lead. It involves playfully intrusiveness on the part of the
adult in order to generate circles of interaction between adult and
child. This therapeutic intervention is especially useful when
working with children who are on the autism spectrum and who like to
play by themselves in a repetitive manner.
www.floortime.org
Theraplay
Theraplay is a play therapy model developed by the late Ann Jernb
Theraplay is a therapist/parent led play intervention which is
designed to increase eye contact, and attachment and engagement
between parent and child, as well as add predictability and
structure to the child’s world.
www.theraplay.org
Marschak Interaction
Method (MIM)
The
Marschak Interaction Method
is a structured technique for observing and assessing the
relationship between two individuals, for example, biological parent
and child, and foster or adoptive parent and child. It consists of a
series of simple tasks designed to elicit a range of behaviors in
four dimensions.
The MIM evaluates the caregiver's capacity: to set limits and to
provide an appropriately ordered environment (Structure), to engage
the child in interaction while being attuned to the child's state
and reactions (Engagement), to meet the child's needs for attention,
soothing and care (Nurture), and to support and encourage the
child's efforts to achieve at a developmentally appropriate level
(Challenge). At the same time it allows assessment of the child's
ability to respond to the parent's efforts.
www.theraplay.org
Child Centered Play
Therapy
Child Centered Play
Therapy helps children work through emotional, psychosocial and
behavioral difficulties and helps address family problems. In Child
Centered Play Therapy, a relationship develops between the child and
the therapist. The therapist enters the child’s world, following the
child’s lead, developing a safe place and a relationship of
trust. Play Therapy sessions are usually held in a playroom that has
a range of carefully selected toys and materials.
In the playroom,
the child can express feelings, thoughts, experiences and behaviors
through play. Toys are used like words and become the child’s
natural language. In Child Centered Play Therapy the child selects
the toys and activities with which to play. The Play Therapist
may join in the play on the child’s direction or invitation. Limits
are set on inappropriate behaviors but are done in a way that helps
the child make choices and develop self responsibility.
Infant Massage
Infant Massage is a massage technique used by caregivers with
babies to increase attachment and bonding as well as sooth and
comfort babies who may be colicky or deregulated. It helps
develop the baby’s body awareness and can help address problems with
constipation and chest congestion as well as increase blood
circulation.
Child Parent Psychotherapy
Child Parent Psychotherapy developed by Alicia Lieberman and
Patricia Van Horn, focuses on helping parents and children regulate
and express their feelings following family traumas and improving
the parent-child relationship with the goal of returning the child
to a normal developmental trajectory. It is based in attachment
theory but also integrates psychodynamic, developmental, trauma,
social learning and cognitive behavioral theories.
Filial Play Therapy
Filial Play Therapy is an approach used by a play therapist to
train parents to be therapeutic agents with their own children.
Parents are taught basic child centered play therapy principles and
skills including reflective listening, recognizing and responding to
children’s feelings, therapeutic limit setting, building children’s
self esteem, and structuring required weekly play sessions with
their children using selected toys. The therapist typically utilizes
didactic instruction, demonstration, role playing, group discussion,
required at home play sessions ,videotapes, and supervision in a
supportive atmosphere to educate parents. Parents learn how to
create a warm, non judgmental, unconditionally accepting, genuine
and understanding environment in which their child feels safe to
explore the parent-child relationship and themselves, including
fears, desires, feelings and struggles. (Burney, et. Al., 1999;
Landreth, 2002)
Dyadic Developmental
Psychotherapy
Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy was developed by Dr. Daniel
Hughes and is based on the premise that the development of children
and youth is dependent upon and highly influenced by the nature of
the parent child relationship. Such a relationship, especially with
regard to the child’s attachment security and emotional development,
requires ongoing, dyadic (reciprocal) experiences between the parent
and child. The parent is attuned to the child’s subjective
experience, makes sense of those experience, and communicates them
back to the child. This is done with playfulness, acceptance,
curiosity, and empathy. The primary context in which such dyadic
exchanges occur is one of real and felt safety for the child.
Therefore this therapeutic intervention for children and their
caregivers is used to increase the attachment relationship between
parent/caregiver and child and is especially helpful in situations
where children are adopted, have experienced multiple past
caregivers such as in the foster care system, have experienced abuse
or neglect, or spent the first years of their lives in a foreign
orphanage.
www.danielhughes.org