Janet Tatum, MSW

Janet’s seen my child regularly for a couple of years to work through some problems he/​she was having at school, blowing off work and not relating to anyone. I don’t want to be more specific such as about gender, for their privacy, hope that makes sense.
I have no reservations about recommending her for something like that. She is very patient, calming, and my child has come a long way in that time.
At first I was a bit skeptical because my child didn’t really want to talk much — admittedly that was the same with everyone else at the time. Janet was a shot in the dark as I could find no other child psychologist or similar in the Redmond area who had regular space after school. I just picked her from the web.
Janet has a sandbox and is a published expert in sandbox therapy. She has about a thousand assorted figurines — fantasy, scenery, animals, police, princesses, who knows what but enough to appeal to pretty much any kid. I imagine older ones might go along with it just to humor her but it still happens. The appointment starts off with the child making some diorama in the sand with the figurines.
This expertise was not why I picked her and I was skeptical about that but now I realize that it finally made my child *talk*. While he/​she is reluctantly making his/​her scenery and placing the figurines, he/​she is distracted, and talks about what is on his/​her mind. (BTW I could imagine that sandbox might help other children act out issues in their family or whatnot viz the policeman, teachers etc but that wasn’t relevant in our case.)
Janet has got back my child in a good place, reassured us that he/​she was not abnormal for his/​her age, and is a backstop in case of further issues. His/​her other parent and I are long divorced, and this is a neutral place which we have in common, which as helped too.
Hope this helps reassure someone else who is considering her. I’m sure she isn’t for everyone but you’ll likely be able to figure that out in a trial visit.