I am excited to announce that I have joined Eagles Landing Christian Counseling Center and will be seeing clients at the McDonough and Conyers offices. I am currently taking Cigna and Private Pay Clients. I am pursuing other insurance panels, including Amerigroup and Centpatico. I am a play therapist and a writer, I wrote the book "Sam Feels Better Now," and I help children learn how to cope with traumatizing situations and disabilities. I can see ages 3 and older. I am hoping to find more time to write, blog and teach. If you are interested in referring to me please contact me.

Eagles Landing Office Phone: 770-898-2966 or my

Cell Phone: 404-234-0546.

Email address: [email protected]

Blog: www.jillosborne.org

Eagles landing website: http://www.eagleslandingchristiancounseling.com/

Thank you for reading!

Wondering how to talk to your children about preparing and the effects of hurricanes? Sesame Street has developed a hurricane tool kit to assist parents and children in talking about and preparing for a natural disaster. There are 5 videos, each discussing different aspects of preparation and also tips on dealing with the aftermath, such as having a routine, finding support, and self care. I watched several of the video clips, each about 15 minutes long, and they show realistic emotions, preparations and after effects. You can check out www.sesamestreet.org, click on the parents section and click on the tool kits tab. There are other topics addressed as well. As a therapist, I appreciate the approach that the folks at Sesame Street took on dealing with a disaster that can cause lots of instability for children and their families.

I am thrilled to post this interview of author Jean Reagan, who is the author of "Always My Brother." "Always My Brother" is a story for children who are dealing with sibling death. This is the first book I have read on this specific form of grief, and I highly recommend it for use with clients, and for parents who may be dealing with their own child's death. Please visit Jean's website and read the Story Behind section if you would like more information about their journey of grief, and inspiration for this book.

1. What inspired you to make this a children’s book?

First, some background. In 2005 after a roller-coaster year of hopes and setbacks, our nineteen-year old son, John, died of a drug overdose Jane, our seventeen-year old daughter became an only child. As we faced our grief, I watched how the death of a sibling is discounted. Well-meaning people offered me (and my husband) comfort, but rarely seemed to acknowledge Jane's tragic loss.

Through research I learned that sibling death is often considered the unrecognized grief. Surviving siblings are sometimes even admonished to be “extra good,” because their parents are grieving. In ALWAYS MY BROTHER I wanted to honor siblings for the devastating loss they face, to normalize the contradictory emotions they experience, and to offer them realistic hope.

I chose to write a picture book rather than a teen book for several reasons. A. There are many teen books about loss of all kinds, including sibling death. B. There are no picture books aimed at a young audience on this topic. (In fact, a "Needed Subjects" column in a writers' magazine expressed a need for picture books about the death of a sibling.) C. As an author, picture books are what I write.

On a personal level, I wrote this book because I wanted my daughter to understand that at some level I understand the utter devastationn of her loss.

Because ALWAYS MY BROTHER is aimed at a young audience, it does not exactly mirror our own family story.

I recently attended a wonderful 2-day sandtray workshop with Denise Filley at Marietta Counseling Center for Children and Adults in Marietta, GA. I have been using sandtray work with my clients since I began this journey of becoming a play therapist, this was the most comprehensive training on sandtray work that I have attended. We covered a range of topics including materials, history of sandtray therapy, and also different perspectives of using the sandtray.

This workshop was highly experiential, including practicing with a partner, group activities, and also individual sandtrays.My favorite part of the training was a partner activity where we did mutual story telling in the sandtray. I had the privilege of practicing that activity with a co-worker, and we took turns picking a figure and adding a story line. I found that after this weekend workshop, we created about 6-7 different types of sandtrays, and I stayed with the same partner throughout the training. At the end of the training we had a larger group tray with about 4-5 different members. We all took turns adding figures until we thought the tray was finished. I found it to be very process oriented, and by the end of the training felt more relaxed and had relieved some stress that I had been experiencing at the time, in addition to feeling like I build some positive relationships with other therapists.

The staff at Marietta Counseling showed professionalism and also hospitality by providing breakfast in the morning, snacks and beverages throughout the training, answering questions, encouraging networking, and also the time they spent setting up all of the sandtray figures!

After this training I felt prepared to go back to work and utilize the techniques we learned right away. I look forward to practicing and increasing my experience using sandtray therapy. I hope to attend future trainings led by Denise Filley, as well as held at Marietta Counseling Center for Children and Adults.

Links:

Denise Filley's Workshop Schedule

Information about Marietta Counseling Center for Children and Adults

I am always looking for free or low cost resources, as I am a therapist on a budget (and I am sure there are many of you out there like me!). With so much info on the web it's hard to narrow down what's good, what's not, and how I can find the resources I need for my clients without spending a fortune. That's why I am soooo glad that I was sent this free copy of Favorite Therapeutic Activities for Children, Adolescents and Families: Practitioners Share their Most Effective Interventions, Edited By Liana Lowenstein, MSW, RSW, CPT-S.

I am always looking for free or low cost resources, as I am a therapist on a budget (and I am sure there are many of you out there like me!). With so much info on the web it's hard to narrow down what's good, what's not, and how I can find the resources I need for my clients without spending a fortune. That's why I am soooo glad that I was sent this free copy of Favorite Therapeutic Activities for Children, Adolescents and Families: Practitioners Share their Most Effective Interventions, Edited By Liana Lowenstein, MSW, RSW, CPT-S.

I just wanted to share this new link, which I have also posted under the Parent Resources page. Stop It Now is a great resource about sexual abuse, warning signs to look for and ways to prevent sexual abuse and speak up for your self.

I just wanted to share this new link, which I have also posted under the Parent Resources page. Stop It Now is a great resource about sexual abuse, warning signs to look for and ways to prevent sexual abuse and speak up for your self.

I recently ran across this interesting article about the rise of ebooks, and the relationships that may change between authors and readers. I am personally finding this trend fascinating and am excited to see how people are using technology with publishing books, especially books for children. Read this article, and comment about your thoughts. Therapists and others who are interested in writing should definitely consider a move to include ebooks into their work.

I recently ran across this interesting article about the rise of ebooks, and the relationships that may change between authors and readers. I am personally finding this trend fascinating and am excited to see how people are using technology with publishing books, especially books for children. Read this article, and comment about your thoughts. Therapists and others who are interested in writing should definitely consider a move to include ebooks into their work.

Thanks to Carol Vertz of Online College Courses for sharing this link, parents of children with Dyslexia and also adults with Dyslexia will find some useful resource links here:

Thanks to Carol Vertz of Online College Courses for sharing this link, parents of children with Dyslexia and also adults with Dyslexia will find some useful resource links here:

Recently, I interviewed Dr. Steven Walfish, the co-author with Dr. Jeffrey E. Barnett of "Financial Success in Mental Health Practice: Essential Tools and Strategies for Practitioners" about his book and also surviving as a private mental health practitioner. I think that most mental health practitioners who are in private practice or are planning to be in the future will benefit from this book.

What inspired you and Dr. Barnett to write this book?

I was a frequent responder on list serves regarding the business of practice. An Acquisitions Editor at APA Books asked if I would be interested in writing a book about the financial aspects of running a practice, as there were no such reso

urces out there at the time.

What is your background in private practice?

I went into part-time practice in Tampa, Florida upon receiving my PhD in Clinical/Community Psychology in 1981. After I completed a Research Fellowship I then took the plunge into full-time practice. I remained in practice in Tampa until 1992 when we moved to Seattle. I was in full-time practice in Edmonds and Everett, Washington for ten years. We then moved to Atlanta. I was a visiting professor first at Kennesaw State University, full-time as I started my practice, and then two years later was a half-time Visiting professor at Georgia State University as my practice continued to grow. In 2006 I stopped teaching and concentrated solely on my practice.

Are you working on any other writing projects?

Jeff Barnett and I just completed another book for APA Books that will be published

this summer titled, Billing and Collecting for Your Mental Health Practice: Effective Strategies and Ethical Practice. It is a continuation of our emphasis on our first book in that mental health professionals receive little, if any, training/guidance on the business aspects of a private practice. The book focuses on how to bill and collect and to avoid ethical or illegal behaviors in the process. Lisa Grossman, a Psychologist in Chicago, have just signed a contract for Springer Books titled, “Translating Research into Practice: Researcher and Clinician Perspectives. Academics/researchers will present the evidence-based research on a large number of clinical problem areas and then clinicians will comment o