Cristina Yturralde,M.C., LPC, NCC, certified Brainspotting therapist and Brainspotting Consultant

My passion is to support children, teens, adults and families in living a better and healthier life no matter what the situation is. The best part of the work I do is that I am able to use a child-centered approach to therapy called play therapy. I am a StoryPlay practitioner with StoryPlay Global. I notice this to be a very effective modality of play therapy that is also strength-based. Play therapy is an important method because it allows the therapist to speak the language of a child. I love to see and hear from parents about how excited the children or teens are to come to therapy. I am happy to say that I have seen the positive results of this work, and it truly amazes me. I use StoryPlay because it uses play to bring about the child's inner resources to allow the child to indirectly overcome their challenges on their own. Nobody is telling the child to do something, they are able to discover this through the work that occurs during therapy. I love being able to support this process. I notice that this is an approach that can help a child family express themselves and find the strength within them to overcome life's challenges. This strength-based approach to counseling promotes resiliency, hope, and healing while honoring the children's needs and ability to express themselves through play, stories, metaphors, arts and crafts. I enjoy involving the parents in this process because their involvement is critical. I also am a certified Brainspotting therapist and a Brainspotting consultant who helps other therapist become certified in Brainspotting.

I also have a specialty in working with children, teens, adults and families who are dealing with serious medical illnesses. Personally and professionally I strongly believe in a mind-body and spirit approach in all that I do. This holistic approach is important, especially for us to know that how we feel emotionally is going to affect us in how we also feel physically. Chronic medical illness, chronic pain, caregivers, parenting with medical illness or parenting a child with medical illness are my specialties. After 15 years of being in this field, I discovered Brainspotting and found true healing for pain and fatigue. It doesn't make the illness disappear but it definitely allows for relief.