Sand Play, Trauma, EMDR, Coaching, Clinical Supervision and Professional Training
Mind, body & spirit are equally impacted by trauma, transition, illness, loss, and childhood wounds.
What we offer
Services
Psychotherapy services for individuals, couples, families and groups using Sand Play and EMDR.
Training
Continuing Education and Clinical Supervision for professional development and license renewal.
Meet the Team
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Founder:Gretchen was introduced to Sand Play Therapy, a play therapy-based treatment modality that was transformational to her both professionally and personally.
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Mary Pat has specialized in families, focusing on trauma. That pursuit has led her to three specific modalities of practice that she feels are most effective in dealing with the issues that lead to therapy.
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An interest in people and helping others led to Toni’s career as a social worker, which began at Ithaca College. In pursuit of a deeper level of education, Toni received her Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999.
A wide range of interests motivated work with different populations. This has been accomplished through a variety of community settings including mental health agencies, schools, and families’ homes. Toni has worked with children, adolescents, and adults, in individual, couples, family and group therapy settings.
Having worked closely with families referred by DCPP (Division of Child Protection and Permanency), a strong focus of practice has been child welfare, including child abuse/neglect, behavioral and parenting issues. Play therapy and EMDR have been strongly integrated in her work.
Toni coordinated the group therapy program at Lighthouse Counseling for nine years, offering social skills and targeted groups to a variety of populations. These groups utilized a unique blend of Sand Play Therapy, yoga, art and play therapy.
Toni has shifted her current practice to working with adults. Focuses include, but are not limited to, childhood trauma, anxiety, chronic pain and fatigue related issues, parenting and family issues. Working with adults on their journeys, fostering an understanding of how their past shaped who they are, as well as recognizing their strengths and potential, has been so valuable in leaving behind what no longer serves them. Envisioning, becoming and accepting the true self and life one desires can become possible.
One of Toni’s proudest accomplishments is co-facilitating Lighthouse’s Sand Play Therapy Training Program, in which clinicians are trained to become Sand Play Therapists. Being able to witness others experiencing the power of Sand Play Therapy has been incredible. Knowing each clinician will then help many others with this technique has been a highlight of Toni’s career.
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Heather was a Psychology major from West Virginia University and continued her education at Caldwell University with a Masters in Mental Health Counseling. Heather is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Addictions Counselor, Clinical Supervisor and a certified life coach. Heather is one of our Sand Play Therapy trainers at Lighthouse Counseling.
Heather has worked in crisis, IOP/PHP, the emergency room, outpatient settings. She has held individual and group therapy sessions for children, adolescents & adults. Heather focuses on trauma, depression, anxiety, autism, addictions and tailors each session to the individual client’s needs. Heather uses some of the modalities of Sand Play Therapy, EMDR, DBT.
Heather strives to help children and adolescents navigate barriers and struggles in mental health. She focuses on working with the client and their family and meeting them where they are as well as advocating for the client. Heather uses sand play therapy to help her client’s express their experiences, fostering emotional healing and greater self-awareness through creativity and play.
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Barbara has worked with both children and adults struggling with unresolved trauma, anxiety, life stressors and depression.
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After graduating from Monmouth University in 2017 with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Social Work Practice with Children and Families, Sara expanded her knowledge base focusing on childhood trauma and the impact of domestic violence on Children and Adolescents.
Sara comes to us with a wide range of clinical experience in a variety of settings such as NJ System of Care, Community Mental Health, Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) , Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), Private Adoption, and the Public School Sector. In practice, Sara utilizes an individualized strength based approach combining Sand Play, EMDR, and creative arts to assist children/adolescents, families, and adults navigating life challenges.
Her true passion lies in advocacy and helping families navigate barriers in various mental health systems.
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Bill Heath is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with over 15 years of experience, specializing in helping children, youth, and families navigate life’s challenges. Currently, Bill is an Affiliate Outpatient Therapist with Lighthouse Counseling, where he focuses on using expressive sand play therapy and EMDR to facilitate healing and growth. He believes in the capacity of these modalities to help clients process trauma, explore emotions, and find new paths forward in a safe and creative way.
Bill's personal philosophy is meeting people where they are and walking alongside them on their path. He values creating and maintaining genuine connections, ensuring each client feels heard, understood, and supported throughout their therapeutic journey. His aim in session and life is to be trauma-informed, strengths-based, and resilience focused. His hope is to empower awareness, liberation and self-efficacy.
As a Certified Sand Play Therapist, Bill uses sand play to help clients—especially children—express their experiences, fostering emotional healing and greater self-awareness through creativity and play. Additionally, his EMDR training allows him to help clients effectively process past traumas, reduce emotional distress, and develop healthier perspectives. Bill also incorporates DBT techniques, drawing on his foundational training to assist clients in building skills for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.
In addition to his therapeutic work, Bill takes pride in providing clinical supervision for associate-level therapists and students, guiding them in their professional growth and development. Likewise, Bill is a certified Advanced Trainer in the Nurtured Heart Approach, focusing on engaging interactions & healthy, robust, relationships.
With a Master of Social Work from Rutgers University and multiple certifications—including EMDR Basic Training, DBT training, and Life Coaching—Bill is passionate about empowering clients to achieve lasting change on their terms. His dedication to fostering resilience and personal growth ensures that each session is a supportive and meaningful step in his clients' journey toward healing.
Bill’s ultimate goal is to never see his clients again…in a good way.
"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." - Lao Tzu
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Joana’s interest in people’s capacity for joy, connection, and learning, in the face of challenge, is what brought her to this work. She engaged in this interest by learning the factors that contributed to health and resilience during her academic studies and research experience.
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Kat has been practicing Social Work in various settings including domestic violence, outpatient, and partial care programs. She has a Masters of Social Work from Seton Hall University. She has experience working with all ages and populations but particularly enjoys working with children and teens.
A note from Kat.: My favorite part of being a therapist is seeing people make breakthroughs. My goal is to help people become the best version of themselves. If this is your first time seeking therapy, please know we do not always need to be serious. I embrace laughter for healing.
I believe therapy is a team relationship between the client and the therapist. I take a “meet the client where they are” approach, allowing the client to guide their own therapeutic experience in a way that is most beneficial for them. I have advanced level training in Sand Play Therapy and am trained in EMDR.
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Clinician/Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapist
Yvonne often refers to her theory of “LYF” – Love Yourself First
She believes in radical self-acceptance, self-care, and compassionate self-inquiry as a pathway to change.
Yvonne is a strengths-based, and trauma-informed therapist who is passionate about helping clients go within to identify and access their strengths and solutions to challenges. She walks alongside those seeking to recognize, allow, investigate, and nurture emotional difficulties, to work through any barriers impacting mental health and wellbeing. Yvonne believes in bio-individuality and that everyone’s unique worldview and personal spirituality play a key role in overall well-being.
Yvonne earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Rutgers University and a Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Kean University. Yvonne completed her Certificate in Sand Play Therapy at Lighthouse, particularly resonating with the Advanced Training in Male and Female Archetypes in 2019. Yvonne’s approach includes talk therapy, integrating DBT, Polyvagal Theory, Parts work, and expressive and mindfulness-based therapy interventions with trauma treatment. Yvonne is excited to now offer Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) in our Tinton Falls office! KAP and Sand go hand in hand and work synergistically to support deep insight growth and change. Reach out now to learn more and schedule your first preparation session!
She has had the good fortune to work alongside and learn from wonderful mentors in the field. And as much as these therapeutic rock stars have taught her, sometimes the most powerful and gifted teachers are her clients. These survivors and thrivers, through their vulnerability and courage, discover their inherent gifts, resources and worthiness. The key to healing is not necessarily in knowing what happened, but transforming how the mind, body, and spirit remember, protect and carry it.
Yvonne has experience presenting guided imagery, holistic health & wellness education workshops, and cooking classes to communities, corporations, groups, and individuals of all ages.
Get to Know Yvonne: Yvonne loves spending time in nature, hiking, biking, kayaking, and balances her free time with her family, her friends, and her cats, Brody and Foxtrot (Foxy). She enjoys carving out time for solitude, reading, practicing meditation, self-hypnosis, and other Mind/Body practices.
Especially when working in the sand with clients that may not initially want to work in the sand, the following quote resonates… “When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the circle of Creation is completed inside us, the doors of our souls fly open and love steps forth to heal everything in sight.” -Michael Bridge
