Helping your child navigate the maze of their big emotions and get to a better place

Your little one is facing big challenges, whether it’s the fear of being away from you during drop-off, anxiety during bedtime or worry about making mistakes, you are witnessing it all.

Childhood has its share of bumps along the way. When you see them struggle, it’s natural to feel a sense of helplessness as if there’s nothing you can do to ease their pain. You find yourself feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how to best respond when your child is struggling emotionally or behaviorally.

Questions swirl in your mind: What if I’ve made things worse? Could I have handled things differently? Am I letting my child down when they need me most? You have this aching feeling of being responsible for what’s wrong and you want to fix it.

You’re Moving Through Some Rough Waters With Your Child.

Do any of the following sound like your child?

  • They worry a lot and feel anxious about many things
  • They sometimes get really angry and act out or have temper tantrums
  • They’ve been through something really scary or traumatic and you can tell it’s effecting them
  • They show signs that they’re not feeling okay and they don’t know how to talk about it
  • They’re not very comfortable in social situations, often getting shy or distancing themselves

Childhood has its share of challenges not just for kids but for parents too. Some days, life just feels like an uphill battle. But even during the tough moments emotions get big and patience wears thin, your love for them never wavers. Rest assured, there’s support here to help your child. Together, we’ll tackle whatever comes our way and make sure your child shines bright.

Imagine feeling like you’ve got your kid back.

Together, you will all enjoy a calm home and notice the volume turned down on the stress and up on the joy.

 Improving things for your child is within reach. What if your child could…

  • Gain a greater sense of confidence
  • Feel happy more often
  • Develop effective coping strategies for managing stress and big emotions
  • Gain insight into their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
  • Enhance self-esteem and cultivate a positive self-image

We believe that play therapy for children helps the whole family.

Imagine if you and your family could…

  • Strengthen the family bond and create lasting connections
  • Cultivate a trusting and supportive relationship with your child
  • Maintain emotional closeness and connection with your child
  • Feel reassured in your child’s ability to cope with life’s challenges
  • Develop effective strategies for managing everyday family stresses

In order to create this new wonderful family environment, parental involvement is a mandatory part of our play therapy services. This means that parents MUST attend an intake appointment first, without the child present, to discuss their concerns, history, goals for counselling and expectations on both sides. Parental involvement also means attending parent follow up appointments regularly with your child's counsellor, and informing and updating your counsellor prior to the child's play therapy session. Services will not be provided should parent's not participate in parent follow up appointments and do not communicate with their child's counsellor. 

Please be aware that all guardian's MUST be informed and give consent for services. Counselling services are not provided if one guardian does not consent. 

Play therapy is helpful for children who:

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Are anxious, whether it’s about school, friends, family changes, anxiety is getting in the way of enjoying life
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Seem to struggle with sensory information such as how their clothes feel, textures, lights, and noise
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Highly sensitive, easily overwhelmed by high levels of stimulation, sudden changes and the emotional distress of others.
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Frequent angry outbursts, quick tempered and often easily set off
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Experienced trauma, whether from a car accident, medical complication or life event
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Seem withdrawn, sad, not enjoying life, often comparing themselves negatively to others
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Are struggling in their step-family with the introduction of a new partner, sibling or new home

How Play Therapy for Children Works

Play therapy for children consists of 60-minute sessions either with the child on their own or with both you and your child that help your child shift towards positive behavior and communication.

 

Here’s how it will work step-by-step:

1. First, let’s all get to know each other. Your counsellor will meet for an intial first session called an intake appointemnt with only the guardians, where the caregiver can share what’s going on and your counsellor will start to understand your child and families unique needs. At this appointment we review consent, confidentiality, office policies, goals for services, expectations on both sides and develop a treatment plan. 

2. Then, your counsellor will meet with your child for one-on-one sessions. In a playful space full of games, toys, and activities your child will get the support they need to express their emotions (even if words might be too hard to say).


3. Throughout the therapy process, your counsellor will encourage you to be involved including parent update sessions, as well as parent and child sessions. Your counsellor will offer resources that may help and guidance on what you can do to support your child’s progress in-between sessions.


4. The most joyful part will be seeing your child grow, become happier, healthier, and start enjoying life as a kid.

 

Our counsellors utilize evidence-based techniques such as sandtray, play therapy, EMDR, and cognitive behavior therapy, to help your child develop their own toolkit for feeling good about themselves. 

 

I’ve included this awesome link, from the creator of Synergetic Play Therapy

It describes for parents, how children communicate. I hope you find it helpful.

Explaining Play Therapy To Children

Parents often ask me how to explain play therapy to their children or even the idea of seeing a counsellor.

My suggestion is to be honest about seeking some help, that you’ve noticed that they have been having a hard time with their worries, or meltdowns, or big feelings, or sad feelings or whatever it is that you are concerned about, and that you’ve found someone that helps kids figure out what to do with these feelings. I encourage parents to keep it positive, keep it normal – this helper helps lots of kids because there are other kids who have a challenge too, you’re not the only one. It should never be used as a punishment i.e. “If you don’t smarten up I’m taking you to the counsellor”. If you’re still not sure, we can talk about this during the phone consultation or intake appointment.

Play Therapy: How Children Learn

Want to learn more? Let’s Get Started Today

Play therapy for children could help your child navigate the maze of their big emotions.

Send us a message to schedule a free 15 minute phone consultation to discuss how we can be of help. 

During your free phone consultation you can share what’s going on for you and your child and we can explore how we can help.

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