About Georgie
Georgie Wisen-Vincent, LMFT, RPT-S
EC/RPT Advisor (Early Childhood/Registered Play Therapy Advisor)
Director of the Play Strong Institute and the Center for Connection Institute
Chapman University
University of Roehampton, London
www.petitplay.com
Georgie Wisen-Vincent, LMFT, RPT-S, is a licensed child and adolescent psychotherapist who has focused her work on helping kids grow in confidence, character, and creativity using a child-centered approach to therapy. Georgie helped create and coordinate the Loma Linda University Play Therapy Certificate Program, and she now specializes in play and creative arts therapies for children from the early years to adolescence. She playfully incorporates creative media and open-ended activities thoughtfully designed to expand your child’s inherent ability to imagine exciting new solutions to childhood’s biggest hurdles.
We know that children learn best when their brains are relaxed and focused, when they are not feeling flooded by peak stress moments. Children are in the optimal zone for learning when we can help get the brain in balance. When children are deeply immersed in a play therapy session, both sides of the brain are working in concert, the creative imaginative right brain and the logical analytical left brain. Georgie uses sensitive observation and responding to teach children how to tell their personal stories, tune in to their feelings, observe their thoughts, and accelerate their problem solving ability. Children can be daring and courageous in play therapy, dreaming up whole new ways of connecting and relating in the world, growing the confidence to apply their new tools to real-life situations. The ultimate goal of play therapy is to help children grow up to be competent, self-aware, inner-directed, secure, peaceful, and loving individuals.
Parents, families, and community are integral to the therapy process and can greatly influence the success of a child’s experience in the creative mode of therapy. Georgie keeps the family at the heart of her work and likes to empower parents as their child’s first and most vital resource. Before she was a play therapist, Georgie spent many years working as a behavior interventionist and she is able to consult with parents and teachers about supportive steps that can facilitate and maintain desired changes at home and at school.
Georgie earned her Masters of Arts in Marriage in Family Therapy from Chapman University before going on to complete a postgraduate specialization at the University of Roehampton, London, Masters of Arts in Child-Centered Play Therapy. She is an active member of both the American Association for Play Therapy and the British Association of Play Therapists and has presented at numerous workshops and conferences for professionals and parents. In addition to her private practice, Georgie enjoys teaching and supervising new therapists at the Loma Linda University School of Social Work.
When she’s not teaching or doing play therapy, Georgie can be found sitting nearby her toddler as he explores, climbs, runs, pours her pretend cups of tea, and learns about the world constantly in motion.
MFC 51784
