As a DIR/Floortime based therapist and NJ special educator since 2001, working with families of infants, toddlers, and adolescents and teenagers diagnosed with ASD and related affect-sensory and social-pragmatic communication challenges, I guide you at each stage to begin to understand and cultivate your child's core Functional Emotional Developmental capacities.

This includes but is not limited to deepening reciprocal attachment and attunement in order to cultivate a sense of felt-safety and help build and expand the foundations for relating and engaging from simple to complex reciprocal emotional problem solving interactions with others and across with space with gestures, words and phrases; .simple to complex symbolic/pretend play and  full social-pragmatic language/communication and peer-relationship skills.  All sessions are directly in your home or a family setting of your choice as that is the primary natural .environment where all optimal development can occur as we guide you with your child throughout all reciprocal .emotional-problem solving interactions, daily routines, play skills and social-pragmatic communication/language and peer interactions. In addition to sessions in your home, virtual sessions are offered to families as an option.

We focus on all sixteen Functional-Emotional Developmental Capacities from birth through adulthood. The following basic six areas are critical for building the core foundations which constitute early typical development. 

1) Self-Regulation and Taking Interest in the World 
2) Engagement and Relating (Falling in Love)
3) Purposeful Two-Way Communication.
4) Complex Communication and Problem Solving
5) Using  Symbols and Creating Emotional Ideas
6) Logical Thinking and Building Bridges Between Ideas.

As an integral part of our DIR/Floortime based therapy, we strongly encourage all our families to submit 10-15 minutes of video clips per week of child/parent or child/peer interactions so that we can track and discuss any concerns or challenges you may have in the implementation of your child’s skills outside of our regular sessions. We review and discuss video clips of you and your child or child and peers outside of our regular sessions every week at no additional cost.

My practice is also strongly informed by Polyvagal Theory which involves understanding the autonomic nervous system foundations that support co-regulated interactions. The focus is on your child's interoceptive cues of felt-safety with others beneath the words with an emphasis on social attunement to other's subtle facial gestures, auditory-prosodic vocalizations, breath and natural movements. This significantly aids in reducing sensory processing challenges and, thereby, allows your child greater access for spontaneous two-way reciprocal engagement and sustained social-pragmatic communication/language to emerge. The emphasis is on the critical importance of the capacity and resiliency of your child's autonomic nervous system shifting from cues of defense to cues of registered felt-safety which are necessary for engagement throughout all social interactions. This also, includes therapeutic listening programs, such as the SSP (Safe and Sound Protocol) which reduces auditory sensitivities and enhances the capacity for young children and older to feel safe and engage with others and their environment. Polyvagal Institute Certificate.  Polyvagal SSP (Safe and Sound) listening program trained and certified. 

I also regularly consult with developmental pediatricians, pediatric neuropsychologists, occupational therapists, feeding therapists, psychoanalysts, physical therapists, nutritionists, art therapists and other professionals where there is required more specific attention to a highly specified area of concern or challenge.  Therapy sessions are conducted not in a clinic but in the convenience of your family home setting which promotes optimal therapeutic outcomes and support.   Family/Child team school consultations are a regular part of our services.

As a matter of professional responsibility and ethics we will never as many practices who offer DIR/Floortime insist that your child needs a minimum of 5 or more hours per week in order for therapy to be effective. We find this in many instances to be unjustified, extraordinary misleading and unethical.

All initial phone/zoom consultations are extensive and non-fee based. 

Age Groups	Children Adolescents Adults
Community Services	Education Early Childhood Education Educational Services Special Education
Health Services	Behavioral / Mental Health ADHD / ADD Anger Management Anxiety Attachment Disorder Behavioral Conduct Disorder Family Conflict & Distress Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) Trauma / PTSD Intellectual and Developmental Needs Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Communication Disorders Early Intervention Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) Learning Disabilities Special Needs Therapeutic Nursery
Treatment Services	In-Community Services DIR Floortime Outpatient Services Counseling Counseling / Therapy, Individual Creative Arts Therapy Play Therapy Social Skills Trauma Informed Therapy Treatment Settings In-Person Virtual
Payment Types	Self Pay
Areas Served	Bergen County Cape May County Essex County Hudson County Morris County Passaic County Union County State-Wide

Last Updated: 02/06/26