For the first few years, Your Therapy Nook was me, a playroom, and a calendar that kept filling up.
This year that changed. I hired two child and teen therapists who play the way I play, and I want you to meet each of them properly, because if you call us, your child may end up in their room. This post is about Bailey. Sabrina has her own.
Who Bailey Verhulst Is: Associate Therapist at Your Therapy Nook
Bailey came to us from Kansas City, where she spent a year in the room, every day, at a children's trauma program for kids between two and six. That's a specific kind of training you can't get from a certificate. It's a year of tantrums that ran longer than any book said they would, of hiding, of hitting, of children who couldn't tell anyone what was wrong and so showed them instead. She learned to read all of it, and she came out of it still delighted by four-year-olds, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Her training. Bailey has a Master of Social Work from the University of Kansas and is trained in play therapy, Level One Theraplay, sandtray, TBRI, TF-CBT, and AutPlay, which is play therapy adapted for autistic and ADHD kids. She's working toward becoming a Registered Play Therapist. She's a registered associate clinical social worker, which means she practices under my supervision. In plain terms: I see her cases, we talk about them regularly, and your child gets two sets of eyes instead of one.
Bailey Verhulst, Registered Associate Clinical Social Worker #141620. Supervised by Hannah Ly, LMFT #129711.
What Is Play Therapy? What Play Therapy Looks Like With Ms. Bailey
Parents ask me this on almost every first call, so it belongs here.
Play Is How Kids Tell You What's Wrong
Child therapy for a young kid is not a smaller version of adult therapy. A four-year-old can't sit on a couch and explain that daycare feels scary since the new teacher came, or that the yelling at home makes their body go tight. What they can do is play it. They'll bury the baby doll in the sand, or make the dinosaur eat the family, or have you be the bad guy for the fifth week in a row. That's not random. Play is the language kids already speak, so play therapy is how child therapy actually happens in our rooms. The child leads, the therapist follows, and the therapist's job is to see what the play is saying and, over time, help the child feel understood enough that the hard behaviors become less necessary.
Her clients call her Ms. Bailey. If you ask them what the most used toy in her playroom is, the honest answer is her. She gets her hair brushed. She plays the bad guy. She is in the sand when a small nervous system needs help settling. When the usual advice keeps not fitting a child, Bailey's instinct is the right one: adapt the room to the kid, never the other way around.
Play Therapy Isn't Only for Little Ones
Bailey is not only for preschoolers, though. With teens it's art, games, and real conversation, and the same rule applies: they choose, she follows. She says teens carry whole galaxies inside them, and she takes what they carry seriously.
Parent Coaching Is the Other Half of Play Therapy
The other half of play therapy is you. Every four weeks Bailey meets with you, without your kid, for parent coaching. She tells you what she's seeing, you tell her what home looks like, and together you work out what to try next. The room is only fifty minutes. Home is the rest of the week. Bailey's favorite moment in this job is a parent sighing in relief because someone is finally on their team, and it's why parents are part of the therapy, not spectators to it.
What Bailey Helps With: Tantrums, Neurodivergent Kids, and Trauma
Tantrums and Big Feelings in Young Children
Tantrums are the big one. Where other adults see a difficult kid, Bailey sees a child telling us something the only way they can. If you got the call to pick your kid up from preschool early again, and the meltdowns run longer than any book said they would, and you're starting to wonder whether this is just being four or something more, that's exactly the kid Bailey spent a year with in Kansas City.
Play Therapy for Autistic and ADHD Kids
Bailey loves working with neurodivergent kids. AutPlay is play therapy built for autistic and ADHD children, and it works from the assumption that the room should change to fit the child's brain, not the other way around. If the sticker charts and the social stories keep not landing, that's not a failure on anyone's part. It usually means the approach was built for a different kid.
Trauma and Attachment in Children
Some kids arrive shut down: no eye contact, no words, no play. Bailey goes at their pace. Her year at the children's trauma program and her training in Theraplay and TBRI are for exactly this, the child who has learned not to expect much from adults. The child who wouldn't look at anyone in week one is often the one parading around in a rainbow wig months later. She can't promise a timeline, but that's the direction she works in.
A Play Therapist in San Jose and Redwood City, Including Saturdays
Bailey sees children and teens at both our offices, on Moorpark Avenue in San Jose and on Veterans Boulevard in Redwood City, and she has Saturday appointments. If you're a Peninsula family in Redwood City, Menlo Park, or Palo Alto and you've been driving to San Jose for a play therapist, or not going at all because of the drive, Bailey is the reason you don't have to anymore.
What the First Session With Ms. Bailey Looks Like
You come in together. The first session is not a drop-off. For a young child, you're in the waiting room and often in the playroom too, and your kid can stay glued to your leg for as long as they need to. Bailey won't peel them off you. She'll get down on the floor, put something interesting within reach, and wait. For a teen, the first session usually starts with you in the room to talk about what's been going on and what everyone is hoping for, and then Bailey gets curious about your teen as a person.
Nobody makes your child talk. Your kid doesn't have to explain why they're there. Bailey will offer the sand, the art supplies, the figures, the dress-up box, and let them pick. A child who spends the whole first session burying dinosaurs in silence has still told her a lot.
You'll know what she saw. Bailey will tell you what she noticed, in plain language, not a report card. The first few sessions are about your child deciding the room is safe. Once that happens, the actual therapy has already started.
How to Tell Your Child They're Going to See Ms. Bailey
Parents ask me this constantly, and the short answer is: be honest, keep it simple, and don't sell it. Something like this, in whatever words are yours:
"We're going to see someone named Ms. Bailey. She has a room with toys and sand and dress-up stuff, and her job is to play with kids and help with big feelings. You don't have to talk if you don't want to. I'll be right there."
Don't frame it as a consequence, and don't promise it'll be fun. Let it be a place. If you want the longer version, I wrote a whole post on how to tell your child they're going to therapy.
How to Start Play Therapy With Bailey in San Jose or Redwood City
Every family at Your Therapy Nook starts the same way: a free 15-minute call with me. I listen, I ask about your kid, and then I match your family to the therapist who fits. If you want Bailey, say so on the call, and when it's a good fit, that's who you'll get. Sessions with Bailey are at our lowest rate; the current numbers are on the rates page, and we provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement.
What I can't promise is a timeline. Some kids need a few sessions just to decide the room is safe, and the shut-down ones Bailey is best with sometimes need more. That's normal. It's also the part I trust her with most, because she spent a year learning to wait.
Ready to Talk? Schedule a Free Consultation
I'm Hannah Ly, LMFT, founder of Your Therapy Nook. If the tantrums have outlasted every book, or the usual advice keeps not fitting your kid, I'd love to talk. We start with a free 15-minute call, no intake forms and no pressure, and we figure out together whether Your Therapy Nook is the right fit, and whether Bailey is the right person for your child.
Schedule a Free 15-Minute Consultation
About the Author, Hannah Ly - San Jose Child Therapist
Hannah Ly is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #129711) and the founder and clinical director of Your Therapy Nook, a boutique child and teen therapy practice with offices in San Jose and Redwood City, CA. She is a child therapist, play therapist, and teen therapist, trained in Synergetic Play Therapy and Brainspotting, with a long background in adoption and foster care. Hannah does every family's first call herself, and every therapist on the team practices the way she does. Every family gets child-led play therapy or teen therapy plus parent coaching every four weeks.
Learn more About Hannah