Working with children and youth of all ages has always brought me joy. Their curiosity, creativity, resilience, and capacity to heal is remarkable. Therapeutically, I work with ages 3-18 using strengths-based, child/youth-centered play and expressive arts therapy. I believe this approach allows for the development of a relationship based on trust from the perspective of your child as a person to be understood, rather than someone who needs to be changed or fixed. This opens up your child’s capacity to grow more self-aware, socially and emotionally intelligent, and allows me to focus on them as a person and who they are capable of becoming. This approach can help with a variety of concerns your child may face including:
- Anxiety
- Social-emotional Issues
- Depression
- Grief
- Behavioral Issues
- Trauma-related symptoms
With my focus on self-growth, creative interventions, compassion, kindness, and playfulness, I hope to be a part of your child’s healing and build a kinder, safer society for your children and future generations.
Personal and Educational Background and Experience
I am in my final year at the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work, focusing on therapeutic work with children and youth who have experienced trauma. I have a background as an artist, with an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts and Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Within the growth of my own artistic practice, I have realized that creative spaces can offer safe realities within dissociation and trauma. Creative expression can help to build a common sense of meaning and stability while helping us understand and define experiences that dysregulated us, and help us to heal. Through my education in social work, I have been able to make stronger connections between art and social justice, and how it can be a useful tool to strengthen families and communities. Creating safe and unquestionably inclusive spaces for children and youth and building systems of support for them is central to healing. There is a growing knowledge that play and creative expression is the language of children and youth. This has influenced my plan to work with children after completing my Masters of Social Work and begin to work toward my Licensure in Clinical Social Work and then a certification in Play Therapy. Apart from my art practice and academic work, I have worked with CASA of Travis County as a court-appointed special advocate, volunteering with children and families who are experiencing Dept. of Family and Protective Services involvement and removal of children from home. I have also worked on a community level, in Care Coordination with YWCA of Greater Austin.
Kellyn Lappinga is supervised by Kristen Felter, LCSW-S.