Monet Goldman
My name is Monet Goldman, and I'm Japanese-Jewish-American therapist born and raised in the SF Bay Area. My mother was born and raised in Tokyo and moved here to the SF Bay Area, where she met my Jewish-American father. I've developed a virtual way of conducting play therapy. By using video games in therapy, I join kids in their preferred games as long as it helps them build social, communication, and self-regulation skills. Before the COVID19 pandemic, I was a play therapist taking kids to the park, ice skating, and rock climbing. But when the COVID19 pandemic shut down in-person activities, I decided to use virtual activities to continue providing play therapy over telehealth. Here is an article by The Washington Post about my use of video games in play therapy during quarantine: https://www.washingtonpost.com/road-to-recovery/2020/10/14/roblox-online-gaming-family-covid/ I'm also helping teens and their families work through their difficulties around school refusal, anxiety, depression, and helping them address deeper forces affecting their behavior. Often the child gets blamed for their problematic lifestyle habits such as gaming. When it could be other more meaningful and existential reasons driving a teen to retreat from school, relationships, and family. To help put the teen at ease, I am also a gamer and hope to join with them in exploring their values in the world while creating the skills needed to reach their goals.
