Theraplay®: Attachment-Based, Trauma-Informed Therapy for Families
in Center City, Philadelphia
Deepening connection. Repairing ruptures. Helping kids feel safe inside their relationships.
It wasn’t supposed to feel like this…
You didn’t expect parenting to be easy. But you didn’t expect the silence, either.
The one-word answers. The slammed doors. The way your child turns their body away when you reach for them, or stiffens at the sound of your voice. You’ve tried being calm. Tried everything the books and blogs suggested. But no matter what you do, your child doesn’t seem to let you in.
You can feel the distance. And it breaks your heart. Because you love them—and it hurts to feel this far away.
Your Child Might Be...
Emotionally reactive or shutting down without warning
Rejecting closeness, affection, or reassurance
Seeming guarded, even with you
Easily dysregulated, especially after transitions or stress
More connected to teachers or peers than to you
Your Teen or Preteen Might Be…
Cold or distant at home, but warm elsewhere
Refusing to talk—but still clearly hurting
Saying things like “you don’t get it” or “just leave me alone”
Quick to anger, especially in moments of vulnerability
Retreating into their room, their screen, or themselves
This isn’t about not trying hard enough. You’ve done more than most would. You’ve shown up, read the books, done the work. But your child still doesn’t feel close—and now you’re wondering if it’s always going to be this hard.
It doesn’t have to be.
You don’t need a new script. You need a new kind of connection—one that reaches below the surface, to where your child’s defenses were first built.
What makes Theraplay different:
Theraplay is an attachment-based, relational, experiential play therapy approach that strengthens the parent-child relationship through simple, in-the-moment interactions. Instead of focusing on correcting behaviors, Theraplay helps your child feel safe, seen, and emotionally held so their nervous system can settle and real change can happen.
Theraplay sessions are dyadic, which means the therapist works with you and your child together, helping you practice connection, co-regulation, structure, engagement, and nurture in real time.
This allows children to experience your presence as predictable, comforting, and emotionally available. When that happens, the behaviors that once felt confusing start to make sense. And the patterns that felt stuck begin to soften.
What is Theraplay™?
We don’t sit your child on a couch and ask them to talk about their feelings.
We guide you—and them—into moments of connection that are simple, structured, and deeply intentional.
Moments that look like play, but are doing the deep work of building safety.
A rhythm game that rebuilds shared presence.
A quiet snack-feeding activity that rekindles trust.
A silly back-and-forth that reminds both of you how to laugh together.
This is what Theraplay offers: real-time, felt experiences of closeness.
Not lectures. Not scripts. Not more pressure to “be calm.”
It’s about restoring the parts of the relationship that got hurt.
It’s about helping your child feel your love—not just hear it.
And it’s about helping you feel confident being close again, even when it’s hard.
Families often reach out to us because they feel caught in cycles that feel impossible to break.
You might notice:
Meltdowns that start fast and feel bigger than the moment
A child who avoids eye contact, touch, or closeness
Lots of push-pull dynamics
Power struggles that leave everyone drained
A child who keeps getting labeled “defiant,” “clingy,” “rigid,” or “too sensitive”
A nervous system that feels like it is always on high alert
A sense of disconnection that makes even simple routines difficult
Maybe you’ve tried traditional play therapy, CBT, parent coaching, reward charts, or “good parenting strategies,” but nothing has shifted at the level you hoped.
When this goes on long enough, it can leave you feeling like:
“I’m failing as a parent.”
“Nothing I do is enough.”
“My child acts totally different with other people. Is it me?”
“Every morning feels like walking on eggshells.”
“I love my child more than anything. So why does our relationship feel so hard?”
Over time, these patterns take a toll. Pediatricians start suggesting more evaluations. Schools start flagging concerns. Family members offer advice that feels unhelpful. You start to lose confidence, even though you are working incredibly hard.
These are the moments when a relationship-focused approach becomes essential. These difficulties are not signs of failure. They are signs of a child who needs connection, structure, and emotional safety in a deeper way.
When No One Showed You How to Love This Way
Most of the parents we work with are trying to give their child something they never got.
Warmth. Safety. Softness.
Not just love—but love that lands.
They’ve made the brave choice to parent differently.
To stay present when they want to shut down.
To offer kindness when they were raised on criticism.
To reach for their child—even when every part of them wants to run or fix or freeze.
But here’s the thing no one talks about:
Knowing what you want to do doesn’t mean you know how to do it.
Theraplay gives you that how.
Not in scripts. Not in theory. But in real, lived moments of connection—guided, supported, and shaped by someone who knows what to look for.
It shows you what it feels like to stay close when your child pulls away.
It helps your body learn how to offer comfort you never received.
It gives you something so many parents never had: an actual, felt sense of what it looks like to love a child in the moments when it’s hardest.
You don’t have to figure it out in the dark.
You don’t have to fake calm while panicking inside.
You get to practice—with someone who’s in it with you—until closeness becomes less terrifying, and more natural. For both of you.
What happens in sessions?
We begin by paying attention to what’s already happening between you and your child.
Not to fix it. Not to label it. Just to see it clearly—gently, quietly, with care.
Early on, you and your child will be invited into a simple, playful interaction. It won’t feel like therapy. It might feel easy, or awkward, or unexpectedly tender. That’s okay. We’re not looking for perfect. We’re watching for the small moments—how you reach for each other, how you pull back, where things flow and where they falter.
From there, we shape the work around your relationship—not around a diagnosis or a set of strategies, but around what you need to feel more connected, more steady, more understood.
Sometimes you’ll be in session together.
Sometimes you’ll have space of your own—to say the things you’ve been carrying quietly for years, and to feel supported in the parts of parenting that don’t get talked about out loud.
There’s no pressure to perform.
No expectation to get it right.
Just space to practice a different kind of closeness—with help.
We’ll walk alongside you as you learn how to find your child again…
and how to let them find you.