Good to be with You.
This blog, as you can guess, is for Families ~~ however Families come to be. I am writing for Intact Families, Adoptive Families, Foster Families, Extended Families, Single-Parent Families, Waiting-to-Be Families, and All Manner of Families in between. It will be great getting to know you!
I am a child-and-family psychotherapist, a Doctor of Psychology and Certified School Psychologist, and also a part of several Families ~~ my Family of Origin, of course, with 88 and 89 year old parents and three siblings who are still very much in the picture and fabric of my life and the life of my own family, including my husband, children (birth and step), and family members that stretch the idea of extended family to many corners of the world. My life's work has given me the joy of having been a children's librarian, an elementary school principal, a school psychologist, a child and family psychotherapist with specializations in trauma therapy, attachment and bonding work, cognitive, behavioral and neurological healing, and our own particular model of therapeutic intervention, "STAT" ~~ Synergistic Trauma and Attachment Therapy ~~ which we practice at the Institute for Children & Families, which I began 7 years ago and which is a thriving center for healing in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Teaching and training have become a focus of my work in recent years. Even in Central Europe, when my husband and I were chosen by Rotary International to develop a treatment and training center in Croatia after the war in the former Yugoslavia, teaching with a translator was one of the most fulfilling parts of the almost-year we spent there. Teaching now brings me to many places in this country, and I am off on a new international (Asia and Australia) teaching adventure in the Spring of '08
Through my work I have learned from numerous mentors and masters, but mostly from the parents, adolescents and children with whom I have walked the path of understanding, teaching, learning, healing, and growing. My book, Becoming a Family: Promoting Healthy Attachments with Your Adopted Child, was conceived and supported through its formation, by the families that asked me to put together the many things we had learned through our work together.
My mission, in this blog, is be a conduit for the wisdom of my life, work, and the wealth of knowledge that has come through me to give tales and tools ~~ ideas of what to do to help all families be as strong as they can be, and to share examples of what families can do to be healthy & loving, to support each other, to use Families as the great support they can and should be in our lives.
I plan to write several times a week, about what makes Strong Families, and often about Special Needs Families. My hope and prayer is that there is information here that will help you to build, strengthen, and gain tremendous joy from your families!
I'll be talking with you!
Doctor Lark
This blog, as you can guess, is for Families ~~ however Families come to be. I am writing for Intact Families, Adoptive Families, Foster Families, Extended Families, Single-Parent Families, Waiting-to-Be Families, and All Manner of Families in between. It will be great getting to know you!I am a child-and-family psychotherapist, a Doctor of Psychology and Certified School Psychologist, and also a part of several Families ~~ my Family of Origin, of course, with 88 and 89 year old parents and three siblings who are still very much in the picture and fabric of my life and the life of my own family, including my husband, children (birth and step), and family members that stretch the idea of extended family to many corners of the world. My life's work has given me the joy of having been a children's librarian, an elementary school principal, a school psychologist, a child and family psychotherapist with specializations in trauma therapy, attachment and bonding work, cognitive, behavioral and neurological healing, and our own particular model of therapeutic intervention, "STAT" ~~ Synergistic Trauma and Attachment Therapy ~~ which we practice at the Institute for Children & Families, which I began 7 years ago and which is a thriving center for healing in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Teaching and training have become a focus of my work in recent years. Even in Central Europe, when my husband and I were chosen by Rotary International to develop a treatment and training center in Croatia after the war in the former Yugoslavia, teaching with a translator was one of the most fulfilling parts of the almost-year we spent there. Teaching now brings me to many places in this country, and I am off on a new international (Asia and Australia) teaching adventure in the Spring of '08
Through my work I have learned from numerous mentors and masters, but mostly from the parents, adolescents and children with whom I have walked the path of understanding, teaching, learning, healing, and growing. My book, Becoming a Family: Promoting Healthy Attachments with Your Adopted Child, was conceived and supported through its formation, by the families that asked me to put together the many things we had learned through our work together.
My mission, in this blog, is be a conduit for the wisdom of my life, work, and the wealth of knowledge that has come through me to give tales and tools ~~ ideas of what to do to help all families be as strong as they can be, and to share examples of what families can do to be healthy & loving, to support each other, to use Families as the great support they can and should be in our lives.
I plan to write several times a week, about what makes Strong Families, and often about Special Needs Families. My hope and prayer is that there is information here that will help you to build, strengthen, and gain tremendous joy from your families!
I'll be talking with you!
Doctor Lark
