Play Therapy for Children in Center City, Philadelphia
Child-centered, attachment-focused, trauma-informed play therapy for children & teens online in Center City, Philadelphia and online throughout PA & NJ
When Your Child Is Struggling, It Can Feel Like You're Constantly Guessing
Maybe your child melts down every day after school.
Their teacher describes them as kind, flexible, and well-behaved. Then they walk through your front door and it's as if every small thing becomes unbearable. The wrong snack. The wrong cup. A sibling breathing too loudly.
You've started dreading the hours between school and bedtime.
Maybe bedtime has become a two-hour process.
Your child asks the same questions over and over. "What time are you coming upstairs?" "Will you still be here when I wake up?" "Are you sure?" You answer patiently at first. Then you hear yourself becoming frustrated. Then guilty for being frustrated.
Maybe drop-off has become its own kind of heartbreak.
Your child wraps their arms around your waist and begs you not to leave. Or maybe they hold it together until they get to school, then dissolve into tears the moment you walk away. You spend the drive to work wondering whether you did the right thing.
Maybe your child is constantly in trouble for things they don't seem able to stop doing.
Impulsive decisions. Emotional outbursts. Constant conflict with siblings. Big reactions to seemingly small problems. You've tried explaining, reminding, rewarding, and correcting. Nothing seems to stick.
Or maybe there isn't one big thing you can point to.
No major crisis. No alarming behavior.
Just a growing sense that your child is struggling and neither of you knows why.
You want to help.
You've read the parenting books. You've listened to the podcasts. You've tried the sticker chart, the reward system, the calm-down corner, the consequences, the behavior plan.
Sometimes they help. Often they don't.
Because many childhood struggles are not a problem of information.
They're a problem of experience.
Children often don't have the words to tell us what they're feeling, why they're reacting, or what happened inside them.
Their experiences show up through behavior long before they show up through language.
That is where play therapy can help.
What is Play Therapy?
If any of those feel familiar, you're not alone.
Many of the families we work with arrive feeling exhausted, confused, and scared that they're missing something important.
Most are doing far better than they think they are.
What they need is support making sense of what their child is communicating.
Children are constantly communicating.
They communicate through behavior, through relationships, through their bodies, and through play.
The challenge is that children rarely communicate in ways adults expect.
A child who feels anxious may not say, "I'm worried."
They may refuse school, complain of stomachaches, ask for reassurance fifty times a day, or insist on sleeping in your bed.
A child who feels overwhelmed may not say, "Everything feels too big."
They may scream because their socks feel wrong.
A child carrying grief may not tell you they're sad.
They may become angry, withdrawn, clingy, or unusually sensitive.
A child who desperately wants to do well may not tell you they're terrified of making mistakes.
They may tear up their homework, shut down completely, or explode when something doesn't go exactly as planned.
Play therapy helps us understand the story underneath what adults can see on the surface.
Play therapy is a developmentally appropriate form of psychotherapy that allows children to express, process, and work through experiences using the language they know best: play.
Play is not a break from the work.
For children, play is the work.
Through carefully attuned therapeutic play, children can begin expressing fears, worries, sadness, confusion, anger, loneliness, shame, and experiences that may be difficult or impossible to put into words.
When those experiences can be understood and held within a safe relationship, healing becomes possible.
What Parents Often Tell Us Before They Call
"Everyone keeps telling me they'll grow out of it."
"My child is fine everywhere except at home."
"I don't know if this is anxiety, ADHD, autism, sensory issues, trauma, or just being a kid anymore."
"We've tried everything."
"I just want to understand what's going on."
"I'm worried I'm making things worse."
"I feel like I'm walking on eggshells."
"I spend more time managing my child's emotions than enjoying them."
Your Child Is…
✘ Struggling with the impact of traumatic experience/s
✘ Acting out at school and home
✘ Having difficulty making and keeping friends
✘ Expressing frequent negative thoughts about themself or others
✘ Avoiding things that scare them
✘ Fighting with siblings
Your Teen Is…
✘ Isolating themselves from you
✘ Struggling with low self-esteem
✘ Lying or omitting the truth
✘ Falling behind in classes
✘ Engaging in self-harm or other risky behaviors
✘ Getting into unhealthy relationships
✘ Repeating actions, checking, or confessing things often, especially when feeling anxious or unsure
You've done all you know to do to help them, but nothing seems to help. It feels like you're not a “good enough” parent to handle this.
It's beginning to affect more than just your child, but your marriage, the rest of your family, and your own well-being.
How does it work?
Our approach to child and teen therapy include involving parents and caregivers at every stage of the therapeutic process.
Therapy is more than just addressing your child’s behavior. It’s also about helping you reattune to your child, identify what they need, and to understand what’s going on under the surface.
This approach remains critical and effective to resolving issues at their root, and minimizing future difficulties down the road.
Why us?
Kids and teens will easily tune out if we just “talk” at them about all that’s going on. As experienced child and teen therapists, we have received extensive training in knowing how best to communicate with your child.
The use of play, art, movement, and storytelling allows us to help them work through the problems they’re experiencing in ways that make sense to them.
We help your child experience themselves differently — as the delightful, loved child that they are. But we’re not just experienced in working with children; we are trained and experienced in working with adults, too. This means we can support you just as much as we can support your child in this process.
Let’s bring love, happiness, & harmony back into your home.
Frequently Asked Questions
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To start, we will meet for 50-minutes each week. Sessions focus on creating healing experiences for you and your child using play, art, and creative expression. This helps your child engage with therapy at the level that is most effective for them.
Depending on your reasons for seeking therapy, we may engage in family-based play therapy to improve patterns of communication and relating. We may engage your child in individual therapy that involves sand tray therapy and the use of dolls and puppets to help your child express their experience without the requirement of adult vocabulary. We will discuss our plan at every step of the process.
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We are going to provide a new way of being with your child. We can help you parent in line with your values, which is possible with the body-based relational tools we teach you. We will help you build strong, lasting connections with your child, so you can understand what’s happening in their heart, mind, and body that contributes to challenging behaviors or mood states.
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We are not behaviorists nor offer ABA therapy. Behavior-based therapy often results in parents and children feeling more disconnected than before. This means we aren't going to encourage you to have token jars, enforce time-outs, or use clip charts. We won’t advise harsher consequences when your child is already struggling to behave. We will provide you with a compassionate, effective alternative that helps you and your child feel more connected, better regulated, and experience fewer difficulties at school and home. This is done through a deep understanding of neurobiological and nervous system informed interventions that help increase a child's sense of regulation, connection, and felt safety.
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Your child will experience better results when you gain the skills and confidence to be the best parent you can be. Rather than just spending an hour per week with your child, you get to be part of the process, to learn about your child alongside your therapist and ultimately feel more effective as a parent/caregiver.
Your own past and background influences how you parent, too. We’ll help you unpack how your own upbringing or childhood is impacting your child and give you the tools to break old patterns and create new ones.
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Schedule your free consultation by clicking the button below. On our call, we’ll answer any questions you have about therapy for your child and be sure we’re a good fit. If we believe we are a great option for you and your child, we’ll schedule your first appointment and get started! You and your child deserve to live a life of confidence, joy, and love together. We can’t wait to speak with you!