Play Therapy

Play Therapy is to children what Talk Therapy is to adults.

As a child-centered play therapist, I believe that children have a unique sense of intuition that guides them through their process of healing and transformation. Within the safety and security of the play room, where all feelings are okay, the child begins to unfold and allows the therapist into his world through play.

The playroom is a special space where children can have in fantasy what they can’t have in reality. For example, A child who experiences bullying at school may play with items in ways that indicate bullying, but also bravery, courage, and victory. The compassionate client-therapist relationship coupled with continued positive experiences in the playroom empowers the child and translates into real-life situations outside the playroom.

For tweens & teens, we utilize Sand Tray Therapy, Activity Therapy, and Talk Therapy.

Play Therapy can help your child:

  • Learn to regulate emotions, so they don’t feel so out of control and take responsibility
  • Believe that their feelings are important, which raises their self-esteem
  • Conquer their feelings of anxiety, so they don’t have to miss out on school, activities and fun because of fears and worry
  • Express feelings in healthy ways, so they don’t have to act out or kick and scream to express their strong emotions
  • Feel confident in themselves, so they don’t internalize negative messages around them

Play therapy parent consults can help you, the parent: 

  • Learn to see your child with a different lens
  • Begin to focus on the donut not the hole
  • Better understand your parenting style and how it impacts your child
  • Learn healthy ways to set limits
  • Practice ways to respond to your child
  • Look past behaviors, to address underlying emotions
  • constant worry
  • frequent refusal to go to school
  • aggressive when he doesn’t get his way
  • trouble separating from you
  • frequent anger outbursts
  • trouble expressing feelings
  • avoiding people or situations due to fear?
  • have trouble sleeping through the night?
  • frequently complains of headaches/stomachaches?
  • experience panic attacks (heart racing, trouble breathing, intense fear)?

If any of the above sound familiar to you, you’re in right place.

Click here for a short video that explains how Play Therapy Works.

Grab your FREE ebook, Parents’ Guide to Defusing Tantrums!

sand tray Therapy

“From the first touch of the sand, there is often a palpable release of tension, as the body begins to find it’s natural rhythm again.” – Bonnie Badenoch

Sand Tray Therapy is essentially a form of play therapy. It is the therapeutic use of a collection of miniatures in a sand tray. It is a non-verbal expressive and projective mode of psychotherapy where the sand tray and the miniatures are the medium of communication.

Sand tray therapy allows a person to construct his or her own microcosm using miniature toys and sand. The scene created acts as a reflection of the person’s own life and allows him or her the opportunity to resolve conflicts, remove obstacles, and gain acceptance of self.

Activity therapy is another form of play therapy utilized with older children and adolescents. This modality uses the same principles of play therapy, while engaging in activities such as building, expressive arts, constructing, games, etc.

Therapy will help your teen:

  • Learn to manage intense emotions
  • Express feelings in healthy ways
  • Feel confident and empowered in their own skin
  • Learn to make healthy choices
  • Choose healthy ways to cope with adverse life events

Therapy for your teen and parent consults will help you, the parent:

  • feel more connected to your teen
  • understand your teen’s development and struggles
  • have meaningful conversations with your teen
  • strengthen the bond between you and your teen
  • learn ways to respond so your teen feels heard and understood
  • self-harm
  • isolation
  • low self-esteem
  • social withdrawal
  • suicidal thoughts
  • refusal to go to school
  • trouble with peers
  • avoiding social situations
  • very critical of themselves
  • nonchalant behavior when discussing feelings or empathy
  • emotional shutdown; no response, disengaged
  • downplaying or minimizing other’s feelings
  • disconnected from the family; lying, disrespectful
  • unhealthy relationships
  • struggling with their identity
  • yelling wars or slamming doors

If you read any of the above and nodded your head, you’re in the right place.

I specialize in working with teens/tweens who have trouble regulating their emotions. Many of these troubling behaviors occur when teens/tweens don’t know how to cope with their struggles.

Book a Free 15 Minute Consultation

talk Therapy for teens

We specialize in helping teens/tweens that have trouble regulating their emotions, make unhealthy life choices and engage in risky behaviors.

Talk therapy can positively impact your kids’ mental health and immune system.

Talk therapy can help your teen/tween feel heard, understood and validated.

A strong body of research suggests that bottling up feelings, thoughts and emotions is stressful. When your teens express their feelings with a skilled professional you can learn new perspectives, gain insights and begin to understand how and why they feel they way they and learn to manage their emotions better.

In addition to supporting teen/tweens, we also support and educate the parents on the best ways to support their kids at home.

Check our Groups section to learn how we support parents with in-depth discussion and teaching effective and strategic parenting.

Book a Free 15 Minute Consultation

parenting workshops

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb

Get your kids to finally listen and cooperate without yelling and time-outs!

We can show you how to…

  • Set limits in your home without time-outs
  • get your kids talking openly with you
  • defuse those power struggles before they spiral out of control
  • Feel more in control when there is an argument
  • Feel more connected to your kids so you enjoy more time spent together

✓Dealing with your child’s feelings, so tantrums & power battles are less frequent & less intense.

✓Engaging cooperation, so your child becomes more responsible and feels more confident

✓Alternative to punishment, so your child can actually learn from their mistakes

✓Encourage autonomy, so your child can be more self-reliant

✓New ways to praise, so your child can learn truly feel proud and successful

✓Freeing your child from labels, so they don’t have to live up to those labels

ONLINE, LIVE, CONVENIENT for busy parents.

Join the group from a comfy corner at home, or during your lunch break at work! 

Next Start Date: TBD

Transform your parenting so you AND your child feel respected and understood.

☛Enrollment fee: $35 (one time)

☛Group fee: $60/week

These groups fill up very fast due to small size, click on the link below to complete the application and I will contact you soon.
I’m ready to transform my parenting

social skills group therapy

We help anxious and isolated kids learn to interact with new social skills so they feel confident and connected with their friends.

What if your child could learn ✔️socially acceptable behaviors, ✔️negotiation skills, ✔️feel confident all while doing a really cool, engaging and fun activity with a Counselor!

Social Skills Group can help your kids learn: 

  • Mental flexibility: see and understand the other persons point of view
  • Consequence: learn natural consequences in a safe environment
  • Interaction: learn new ways to interact with peers that is inviting, acceptable and appropriate
  • Confidence: Feel powerful and confidently make decisions in a group setting

Kids can learn socially appropriate behaviors!

This Social Skills Group is very unique, it follows the Dungeons & Dragons methodology AND it’s led by one of our skilled Counselors, Bhavika Parmar, LPC Intern, supervised by Beth Coles, LPC-S #61349 RPT-S. She cultivates a warm, engaging, and dynamic environment while assessing your child and specifically helping him/her navigate the activities so he can work on his social skills.

Kids can learn to tolerate peer feedback!

Kids will create their own characters (feels powerful), and play these characters in a fantasy world. Your child (as their character) will work together with others to solve problems, defeat monsters, and work a little magic!!

There will be maps and figurines. Your child will keep track of his own character’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations and use their imagination and problem-solving skills to interface with the world (empowering!)

This is the ultimate group for kids who enjoy fantasy, being in control, winning AND need help in problem-solving and interacting with friends!

Social Skills Group is Perfect for kids who….

  • Have trouble making new friends
  • My way or the highway when playing with friends
  • Often feels lonely on the playground
  • Doesn’t know how to negotiate with friends
  • Often drives friends away
  • Lacks confidence and has low self-esteem
  • Has trouble interacting with kids in a group setting

Coming Soon

Help your kids learn social skills for life: confidence, assertiveness, and teamwork.

sign up for social skills group

Frequently asked questions

Play is to children what counseling or talk therapy is to adults. Play is the most natural form of expression for children.

Play therapy differs from regular play in that the trained play therapist helps children to develop problem solving skills, regulate their emotions, learn to communicate effectively and express their feelings. Play Therapy is the most developmentally appropriate approach to therapy with children.

Play Therapy is provided in a room specifically designed and equipped for play  therapy. The play room includes a variety of toys that are carefully chosen for their therapeutic powers in the play. Play is a child’s language and the toys are their words.

The Association for Play Therapy outlines the stages of play therapy which helps inform parents of what to expect and guides play therapists during the process. You may read about them here.

Click here to watch a short video on How Play Therapy Works!

Sand tray therapy is essentially a type of play therapy. This type of therapy is often used with children, but can be applied to adults, teens, couples, families, and groups as well. Sand tray therapy allows a person to construct his or her own microcosm using miniature toys and colored sand. The scene created acts as a reflection of the person’s own life and allows him or her the opportunity to resolve conflicts, remove obstacles, and gain acceptance of self.

Activity therapy is another form of play therapy utilized with older children and adolescents. This modality uses the same principles of play therapy, while engaging in activities such as building, constructing, balls, games, etc.)

It’s very common to have teenagers refuse counseling services.

Here are some ways to address that resistance:

+Validate: “I see you’re nervous about seeing a counselor. It can be awkward and nerve-racking.” 

+Focus on the results of therapy: “Therapy can help you find relief from those (insert concern here) the nightmares that have been disturbing you lately.”

+Educate: “Licensed Professional Counselors are trained professionals that can help you understand what triggers your anxiety and ways to manage it.”

+Decision making: “Therapy is going to help us communicate better and make decisions together about what is best for you. If you choose to not go to therapy, you’re choosing for me to make those decisions with the Counselor on behalf of you.”

If you are still seeing resistance please call me and I can help you with more ways to help your teen seek therapy. If all else fails, give your teen some space to think over it. In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to attend parent sessions alone so I can help you learn ways to respond to your teen at home, that can eventually lead them to therapy.

During my very first therapy appointment with your teenager, I explain to him/her that this time and space is for them, they get to be the boss and decide their course of therapy. I also let him know that my job is to support him and to help his parents better understand their needs.

This usually gives the teen an exhilarating sense of empowerment (which they really like!) and motivates them to continue to come to sessions. Because of my years of experience with teens, I know how to talk to them and how to establish a warm, pleasant relationship. Most of my teens love coming to therapy with me!

In the process of growing up, most children experience difficulty coping at some time (at home, at school, with divorce and separation, with other children, etc.) or they exhibit behaviors which concern their parents or teacher. Some children may need more help than others in some areas. Generally, if you, your child’s teacher, or pediatrician is concerned about your child’s behavior or difficulty adjusting, play therapy is the recommended approach to help your child.

Play therapy can provide a child with a developmentally appropriate way of accessing feelings so that therapeutic healing can occur.

Play therapy helps children develop problem solving skills, emotional regulation, respect and acceptance of self and others, responsibility and accountability for behaviors and self-awareness. Children in play therapy learn healthy communication, healthy expression of feelings, empathy, social skills, self-regulation and healthy boundaries.

The positive relationship between a therapist and child during play therapy is very important and can provide an experience that promotes well being and leads to emotional healing

As a therapist, I understand the importance of strengthening family bonds and attachment, therefore, she is committed to working with parents/caregivers. I also provide Child-Parent Relationship Training that includes the parent/caregiver as the therapeutic agent of change. You can find more information here.

Please call 214.810.2156 to schedule an appointment. After your appointment is scheduled, you will be emailed intake forms that you can review, complete and sign online. These forms must be completed before the scheduled appointment.

The first appointment is an intake parent consult session with the caregiver(s) only. During this session, I inquire further about the child and family dynamics, gather a thorough developmental history, answer questions, discuss goals and what to expect during the counseling process.

Each play therapy session usually lasts 45 minutes, (30 minutes for toddlers). Sessions are typically held weekly.

Every child’s concerns and struggles are unique and personal, hence their healing journeys are also very unique and at their own pace. The length of counseling varies for each child. A positive relationship with the therapist is key in play therapy; the child needs sufficient time to develop a trusting and warm therapeutic relationship with the therapist in order to feel safe enough to express to the therapist through toys, sand, or expressive arts, his/her child’s world view and perceptions of experiences.

Research suggests that it takes an average of 20 play therapy sessions to resolve the problems of the typical child referred for treatment. However, it’s important to note that some children may improve much faster while more serious or ongoing problems may take longer to resolve.

Here are some examples:

“Today you are going to play with a new friend.  I went to meet her last week and she has a whole room full of toys!  I can come in with you the first time if you like or you can go in by yourself.  I will stay in the waiting room the entire session and wait for you.”

“Counseling is a safe place where you play with a new friend and learn about feelings.”

“This new friend is going to help us figure out some new ways to be together.”

I am committed to working with parents/caregivers.

After every 3-4 play therapy sessions, a parent consult will be scheduled. During this session, I will discuss progress in the playroom and at home, re-assess goals & treatment plan, address parents’ concerns and help parents gain a better understanding of their child.

Families play an important role in children’s healing processes. The interaction between children’s problems and their families is always complex. Sometimes children develop problems as a way of signaling that there is something wrong in the family. Other times the entire family becomes distressed because the child’s problems are so disruptive. In all cases, children and families heal faster when they work together.

I will make some decisions about how and when to involve some or all members of the family in the play therapy. At a minimum, I will want to communicate regularly with the parent/caregiver(s) to develop a plan for resolving problems as they are identified and to monitor the progress of the treatment. Other options might include involving a) the parents/caregiver(s) directly in the treatment by modifying how they interact with the child at home and b) the whole family in family play therapy.

Consistency is an important part of therapy and growth. If counseling services are difficult for you to afford at this point, in order to provide consistent therapy for yourself or your child, I’d be happy to provide with some referrals in the community that provide therapy services for community members on a sliding scale based on your hardship. Here are some places to get started:

Galaxy Counseling – Garland, TX 972.272.4429
Family Tree Counseling – Plano, TX  214.230.1234

When children experience a play relationship in which they feel accepted, understood and cared for, they play out many of their problems and in the process, release tensions, feelings and burdens. You child will then feel better about him/her self, and will be able to discover own strengths and assume greater self-responsibility as he/she takes charge in the play situations.

How your child feels about her/himself will make a significant difference in their behavior. In the special play times where you learn to focus on your child rather than your child’s problem, your child will begin to react differently because how your child behaves, how he/she thinks, and performs in school are directly related to how he/she feels about him/herself. When your child feels better about him/herself, he/she will behave in more self-enhancing ways than self-defeating ways.

Still Have Questions?

Please book a complimentary 15-minute session to learn more about how our services can help you and your child.