Family Therapy
This approach involves parents or primary caregivers in the therapeutic process. Family Therapy offers a unique, engaging and effective approach to address challenges and conflicts within the family system. Typically:
Therapists teach parents techniques to engage in therapeutic play with their children.
The aim is to strengthen the parent-child bond and empower parents to support their child’s emotional well-being.
How does it work?
In a family therapy session, the therapist will guide family members through specific games or activities. These will not be random selections but are intentionally chosen to:
Illuminate patterns of interaction within the family.
Address specific concerns.
Offer a safe space for emotional expression.
Work on parenting strategies to help family members stay calm and to respond to situations in a balanced way.
Develop skills to improve communication, problem solving, and coping strategies.
The therapist observes how each family member interacts, responds, and engages during session activities. These observations provide insights into family and relational dynamics and roles to work on attachment bonds and possible sources of conflict within relationships.
Who can benefit from Family Play Therapy?
Families undergoing major transitions, like divorce or relocation.
Families experiencing grief or loss.
Families that would like to improve upon behavioural issues, emotional challenges, or developmental needs.
Families who are finding it hard to struggle with communication or. understand one another.
Families who would like to strengthen the attachment bonds and relationships with one another.
Parenting Support
It can be difficult to be a parent, especially when it comes to facing contentious issues such as homework, screen time, food choices, and bedtime. And whenyour child’s behaviour or emotional reactions seem particularly intense,parents can feel at a total loss.
At Creative Connections, we understand and are here to help. We seek to deeply understand what challenges you’re facing and identify relational supports individualised to you and your family that help you navigate the parenting journey with more confidence, connection and success. We will listen and explore strategies based on the latest research on parenting and the brain, which can help you not only survive difficult moments with your kids but use those very moments to help you and your child thrive.
Image from The Power of Showing Up by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
Parent Coaching
Our parent coaching offering has a primary focus on developing your toolbox of parenting strategies through online parent workshops and working with you individually if required. We can help you navigate challenging behaviors and moments of dysregulation with your child while developing your strengths as a parent. Parent coaching often encompasses the following:
Steps for identifying your own discipline philosophy; and mastering the best methods to effectively discipline and communicate the lessons you want to impart.
Strategies to calmly connect and communicate love for your child, no matter how extreme the behaviour, while still setting clear and consistent limits.
Tips for guiding or partnering with your child through emotional storms.
Facts about child brain development and what kind of discipline or expectations are most appropriate and constructive at all ages and stages.
Techniques and strategies to help strengthen your child’s communication, play, executive functioning development, and regulation with family members and friends.
Keys to understanding what’s typical for your child’s age and stage, to better determine together whether your child might need some additional support.
We will support you with ideas to help you peacefully resolve conflicts, inspire connection, understand your child’s growing brain and developing mind, and strengthen resilience for everyone in the family. It can be tremendously valuable to learn more effective strategies and figure out how to be more intentional about building your relationship with your child.