Joan M. Coles MS LPC
Founding Partner and Child and Adolescent Therapist
Whether you’re seeking support for yourself or a your little one, I am here to offer compassionate guidance and practical tools. Together, we can work towards your goals and foster a deeper understanding of yourself and your life experiences. I look forward to the opportunity to walk with you on your journey to a life worth living!
“Thank you, child…for reminding me about the joy and excitement of being human. Thank you for letting me grow together with you, that I can learn again of what I have forgotten about simplicity, intensity, totality, wonder and love and learn to respect my own life in its uniqueness. Thank you for allowing me to learn from your tears about the pain of growing up and the sufferings of the world. Thank you for showing me that to love another person and to be with people, big or small, is the most natural of gifts that grows like a flower when we live in the wonder of life.”
Gary Landredth, founder of Child Centered Play Therapy
Play Therapy with Miss Joan
With her younger clients, Joan practices from a Child-Centered perspective, using play to connect to children and help them explore and process their thoughts and feelings about the world around them. Joan is passionate about using play to provide developmentally appropriate therapy to little ones and is currently working towards earning the Registered Play Therapist credential via ongoing supervision and continuing education.
She works with children experiencing grief and loss, depression, anxiety, trauma, oppositional defiance disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder as well as those struggling with adjusting to divorce, a move, or other significant life transitions.
Parents often ask “Why do you play in session?” or “How will play help my child to feel better?” The simplest answer is that just as an adult will come into the therapy room and share their thoughts and feelings with words, children will come into the playroom and share their thoughts and feelings through play.
When working with play therapy clients, Joan meets with parents regularly for parent support sessions to allow for collaborative work and sees parents as her partners in helping their kiddos on their journey to recovery.
DBT with Joan
Joan loves using DBT to help her clients build a life worth living. She is intensively trained in DBT and is an eager learner, continually broadening her knowledge base by attending additional trainings and completing independent study. Joan loves leading DBT skills classes for adolescents and finding ways to incorporate playfulness and fun into her class sessions.
She provides Comprehensive DBT Therapy to adolescents with chronic suicidal and self-injurious behavior, depression, anxiety, trauma, borderline personality disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, and substance use, misuse, and abuse. Joan enthusiastically provides phone coaching to help her clients generalize skills use and avoid target behaviors. She is a passionate DBT provider. When working with teen clients, Joan includes parents with monthly parent or family sessions.
