Our counseling services help families that are disconnected to bicker less, doom-scroll less, act out less, tantrum less, silently cry less, laugh more, dream more, smile more and simply build a home your kids will love returning to when they’re adults.
Using the therapeutic powers of play, children find resolution.
Reclaim peaceful communication and connection with creative counseling approaches.
Parental Support, Individual Therapy
Your kids aren’t necessarily going to verbalize their thoughts, but they might show you. You’re precious little one just threw a tantrum at the grocery store because they wanted the impulse-buy dinosaur cup that is impossible to clean. They seem to have a “move as slow as possible” setting whenever you’re already running late and have told them 5 times to get their shoes on. They’ve started biting their nails or picking at their lips randomly, they’re anxious but they’re not saying it. They don’t want to go to school. They don’t want to go home. They don’t want to play, at least not by the rules. Their stomachs sometimes hurt. Their heads sometimes hurt. How can nothing be wrong and everything be wrong at the same time. WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO FEEL SO HARD? Aren’t kids supposed to just WANT to play? You’ve got drawers of craft stuff. You worked so hard on that playset outside but they still just seem “meh.” Now, you as a parent might be thinking “oh my gosh, my child is going to grow up to the be one the everyone thinks is entitled!” Nope, they just need help learning to hold opposing emotions.
Really, you and your child are wrestling with the EXACT same questions… “Do people like me?” “Can I make friends?” “Will I embarrass myself?” “Why does [this] seem easier for others than it does for me?” At Playful Hearts Counseling, LLC, we will address your “enough-ness” head on.
You just imagined that parenting would feel so different than how it actually does. It was supposed to FEEL joyous! There are moments of that, sure, at least your photos would show that, but it doesn’t always seem congruent. Sometimes it seems you walk in the door and people retreat to different corners of the house until they need food.
You feel weird questioning your own childhood because you had a “good childhood.” It feels like some kind of betrayal if you say things weren’t picture perfect but you can’t help but wonder if some of the reasons your child reminds you so much of yourself has to do with being parented in the same way you were… or… maybe the pendulum swung so far in the other direction, it feels like a different flavor or “non-ideal.” It is confusing, isn’t it? One influencer says one thing about parenting, another one says another. Your church, at least the one you grew up, likely had a lot to say as well! You’re pretty clear on what you won’t do to change your child’s behavior but you’re completely unclear about what you should do.
Our adult clients, despite meeting every marker of success on paper struggle with connection in their families. They have friends and co-workers that see a bubbly, go-getter but their most intimate relationships suffer. They’re deeply concerned about how their emotional challenges have trickled down to their kids or have created walls within their marriages. They want more authentic, happy family interactions. They know in their hearts that it is completely possible but they need a bit of a map to guide them.
From the perspective of the little ones, they see a hard-working parent but they don’t see a playful parent. They might sense you’re sitting in their “tent” they made in the living room, not because you were excited to play but just because you know you haven’t in awhile. They know that you talk a lot about limiting screen time, but your chase for dopamine is a back-lit rectangle. You’re not modeling the things that once felt were so deeply important to you. You want to though. The desire is still in there but when getting little shoes on little feet feels like such a monumental task, it feels easier to just stay put!
Before visiting our practice, you might have tried counseling before but something about it felt incomplete. You deserve nothing more than to have your arms be a safe space for your kids to WANT to fall into. Your children deserve to know that you utterly delight in their existence even if you’re just now learning how to show it. You deserve the happy memories, the safety and security, and the joy that is possible within your own four walls.