Helping Kids Transition To Summer

Summer can be filled with a lot of joy, excitement and fun! But the transition from a rigid school routine to a flexible summer may be met with some resistance. Expect kids to express and experience:  Stress Anxiety towards a new routine Grief of ending the...
How To Talk To Kids With Anxiety

How To Talk To Kids With Anxiety

Anxiety is an illness of “What Ifs”. It’s different from fear which is often based on specific danger. Anxiety is more general. It is a feeling of persistent worry, often about predictable themes within a child’s life. Anxiety works in a cycle. It is self...

The Explosive Child: A Review

A Review by Shawna Nelson, our Graduate Student Intern The Explosive Child, written by psychologist Dr. Ross Greene is a guide for parents of children who are inflexible, easily frustrated, angered, and triggered in especially intense ways. These children will often...
What Is So Special About Play Therapy?

What Is So Special About Play Therapy?

What is so special about play therapy? How is it possible that a room full of toys and an adult can create meaningful change? Firstly, we don’t have just any toys. We choose toys that facilitate expression and understanding. We create an environment with...

The Performance Trap

The playroom is a special place for children but on occasion, it can be helpful for grown ups too. Unsurprisingly, most adults don’t know how to play well. So when a grown up joins their child in the playroom we have a few rules. The first rule is that the child leads...
The Art of the Relationship

The Art of the Relationship

The Space We Make  Being a parent of a child in chronic emotional distress can make you feel as if you have a phantom limb. One you can feel pain and discomfort in but have no power of relieving or protecting. This pain often rightly motivates us to seek support...
The Meaning of Play

The Meaning of Play

“If we were to allow the wonder of the life of a child to reach us fully and truly and to be our teacher, we would have to say: Thank you….for reminding me about the joy and excitement of being human. Thank you for letting me grow together with you, that I can learn...

Plato

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play, than in a year of conversation. –...

Peggy O’Mara

The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice. – Peggy...