Meet Jarrett Clayman!
Hello! I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Massachusetts with focus on creative and collaborative problem solving and new skill building for parents/families who desire nonjudgmental, empathic, and individualized support. I am also a singer-songwriter and rhyming poet. Music and short form creative writing has deeply inspired me since I was a young teenager. I found it intensely meaningful that others' words could help solidify and clarify my own emotions and unformed thoughts. It became my mission to develop my own voice to do so for others, and in the process, came to know myself better as well.
Because the majority of my experience as a therapist comes from working with children and teens, I have a passion for working with parents and caregivers - the people who spend the greatest deal of time and have the greatest potential for influencing child behavior.
As caregivers for your children, I believe that your intention is to provide them with patience, nurturance, compassion, and opportunities for growth. However, it can be challenging to recognize whether we are reinforcing behaviors we want or don’t want as we take in-the-moment action to try to teach life lessons, set helpful limits, and encourage positive skill-building experiences. We often don’t know until we see unwanted behaviors come to fruition.
Therefore, I coach and support parents to:
→ clarify parent goals for your children (and for yourselves as parents),
→ nonjudgmentally understand and validate the parent experience (it is normal and healthy to feel overwhelmed, disappointed, and frustrated with children at times),
→ support parents with non-shaming self-reflection, and perspective-taking of your child's experience,
→ deepen parent understanding and shift your lens for how children function in relation to their family systems, and
→ develop new parenting strategies and methods of communication, tailored to your family, that reinforce wanted behaviors and set balanced, appropriate limits as needed.