About Claire Bennett, LMFT

I got into this work because I grew up in a house where big feelings had nowhere to go. I became a family therapist so other kids, and their parents, wouldn't have to figure that out alone.

Most of the families I work with arrive at the same place: a kid whose behavior doesn't make sense anymore, and a parent who's run out of ideas. Maybe it's a straight-A student who suddenly can't get out of bed for school. Maybe it's a six-year-old whose tantrums have turned into something scarier. Maybe it's a teenager who's stopped talking to you altogether.

My work focuses on the relationship between a child's behavior and what's happening around them, at home, at school, in their own body. I use play-based approaches with younger kids, more direct conversation with teens, and I almost always bring parents into the room, because kids don't change in a vacuum.

Therapy with me isn't about fixing your child. It's about helping them (and you) understand what their behavior is trying to tell you, and building a different way to respond to it. My job isn't to replace you as the expert on your kid. It's to help you both trust that expertise again.

Thanks for being here. I know reaching out isn't easy.

—Claire Bennett, LMFT