Our hope is for children, teens, and families to restore the connections in their life and their relationships.
Child therapy is usually based on the idea that children best express their feelings, thoughts, and experiences through play, whereas adults usually express themselves through words and ideas. We use a variety of specially selected toys and games that facilitate a therapeutic process between a child and their therapist. Our therapists and counselors are trained to “understand” the symbolic language of play and convey to a child their understanding, acceptance, and response to the child’s concerns.
Teenagers on the other hand, often feel caught in between childhood and adulthood and are struggling to find their own identity while undergoing rapid physical, emotional and intellectual growth, and change. Therapy with adolescents often integrates both play therapy and talk therapy, and is tailored around each adolescent’s particular needs and capacity. Although adolescents can use words to convey themselves a lot better than younger children, they still have some difficulty articulating themselves.
Family counseling can help to promote a more connected relationship and understanding within a family. Whether there are life stressors and transitions, conflict with siblings, or parents, coping with the divorce of parents, or a traumatic experience. The therapist often helps the family reflect on better ways of communicating with each other and as a result, family counseling may in part be instruction and encouragement. In fact, family counseling often teaches family members new and more positive ways to communicate to replace old, negative communication patterns.
Restoring Connections Counseling does not provide child custody evaluations for divorcing parents or parents who are disputing custody of their minor children.