Maine Integrative Wellness | Lauren Como, LCSW

Lauren Como, LCSW Psychotherapist and Play Therapist, is in private practice in Portland, Biddeford and Boston. She received her clinical degree from The University of New England. She is currently pursuing her PhD at Smith College. In addition to providing outpatient therapy, she has extensive experience treating children, adolescents, adults couples and families. She has served as adjunct faculty in the School for Social Work graduate program at UNE and has provided consultation for local pre-schools and child development centers. Lauren's specialty is working with children of all ages, including infants, working on attachment and developmental issues. She was on the board of directors for the Maine Association for Infant Mental Health and she works as a consultant to pre-schools and child development services.

Psychotherapy and Play Therapy

In looking at the complex relationship between body and mind, psychotherapy enhances our understanding of the role of emotions in health and medical illness. Psychotherapy is based on the understanding that often people are unaware of the many reasons that they behave and feel in certain ways. These unconscious ways of being may cause many symptoms such as feeling lonely, unhappy, anxious, impulsive, obsessive, and may contribute to having difficulty in learning, working, loving and feeling good about one's self. By the process of establishing a trusting and caring therapeutic relationship over time, this helps the individual to deal better with the realities of life.

Child and adolescent therapy helps one to reveal his or her inner feelings and worries not only through words, but also through drawings, fantasy and sand tray play. Parents are usually consulted to round out the picture of the child's life. The goal of child and adolescent therapy is the amelioration and/or management of symptoms and the psychological roadblocks that complicate normal development.

Play therapy is a systematic approach to gaining insight and awareness into a child's world or interior landscape through their primary means of communication: play. It's the way children best express their feelings. A skilled play therapist is aware of developmental stages and provides an array of materials that appeal to children of different ages. Play therapy rooms are specially set up to provide a sense of physical and emotional safety. Toys, activities and materials are carefully chosen to encourage expression of feelings and to facilitate the symbolic enactment of difficulties children may be experiencing. Play therapy can be used to 1) address specific problems and also to 2) help facilitate positive developmental progress ("getting development back on track"). It is best seen as attending to both of theses areas, not just one or the other.

"I believe therapy is part of the process of getting well and living a complete and whole life. Therapy can be challenging and difficult at times, but can enrich and change life in ways you never could have imagined". Lauren Como, 2006