I have helped families have greater understanding of their relational dynamics, acknowledge their inherent strengths, speak from their hearts,  cultivate greater empathy for each family member, resolve underlying tensions, and better comprehend the meaning of and practice more effective interventions in their children's behaviors.

Family Therapy

During the assessment phase, I meet with parents to gather family history, information about the current situation and challenges, and what interventions parents have already tried. I encourage the whole family to come in for the next session so I can understand more about your family's dynamics and for your child to get familiar with the space. I meet with parents again to provide recommendations for therapy and collaborate ongoingly with you about goals and at home interventions to best support your child and family.

Parenting Consultation

All parents strive for loving and deep connections with their children, but sometimes conflicts and power struggles arise and get in the way of sharing sweet moments together. I come from a strengths-based perspective and help parents look at their triggers to guide and provide them with tools. ​​Sometimes looking at your family of origin dynamics is useful to understand what might be getting in the way of responding appropriately and being present with your child. 

Filial Therapy

Filial therapy is a well-studied, evidence based treatment. Research shows it can benefit both parents and children by facilitating more securely attached relationships and skill building when children face behavioral and psychosocial challenges and transitions. Filial therapy is parent-child relational therapy for parents who would like to work directly with their child to build trust and strengthen their bond. It is a culturally sensitive psychotherapeutic educational model for parents who want to learn tools to directly support their child. 

This methodology is indicated for children ages 3-11 years old. Filial therapy helps strengthen the bond between each parent and your child, helps the child to feel their autonomy/power/control in a play situation, which decreases the acting out that comes from them attempting to gain control when it's time to leave the house, go to bed, follow directions, etc. If you want to understand what's at the heart of your  child's challenging behaviors, and practice limit setting in a play environment, then Filial therapy might be the right intervention for your family!

I coach parents to learn new ways of relating to their child in special play sessions in my office. I guide you to learn and practice skills when your child is going through a big transition such as going to a new school, getting a new sibling, separation/divorce, a death in the family, or exhibiting challenging behaviors that leave you feeling confused and frustrated.

It’s much like child-centered (or non-directive) play therapy in that parents learn how to use skills that a child therapist utilizes such as empathic listening (being very present with and reflective of your child’s emotions, reactions, behavior), as well as boundaries and limit setting. All of which support a more secure attachment. Together, we look at themes that emerge during play in order to better respond to the struggles happening in the child’s internal world. I coach parents directly to learn some child-centered play therapy skills, model the methodology, and give support with how to generalize these skills to everyday life.

Throughout the process, the child's sense of trust and healthy attachment to you increases and they have the experience of feeling more deeply understood. The result is that the relationship is strengthened, parents are more attuned to what’s going on internally with their child, and more able to navigate and assuage difficult behaviors at home. Parents and I work collaboratively to come up with specific interventions you can implement outside of our sessions.

In Filial & Family Therapy,
children have shown improvement in their:

• ​Self-esteem
• Abilities to transition between activities
• Responsiveness to structure
• Frustration tolerance
• Relationships with their parents (increased confidence and trust)
• Ability to self-regulate their emotions

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Diana Halfmann, LMFT
Psychotherapy, Ketamine assisted therapy, Shamanic Counseling, Child & Family Therapy
in San Francisco
[email protected] | 415.857.3901