Play Therapy for Kids in Huntersville

Helping your child gain new skills through play.

Play therapy is how kids learn new skills when the world around them is a bit too challenging or overwhelming.

We are Registered Play Therapists and play therapists in training, and are specifically trained in assisting your child meet their goals through play therapy. The Association for Play Therapy defines play therapy as a “way of being with the child that honors their unique developmental level and looks for ways of helping in the ‘language’ of the child…to better express themselves and resolve their problems.” To learn more, please visit their website under Why Play Therapy? Play therapy is not just about playing. We focus on building skills, while assessing strengths and challenges, to help a child overcome all kinds of concerns such as anxiety, low self esteem and anger. In addition, we teach you new strategies to support your child’s newly developed skills. Play therapy can assist in lowering anger and frustration, improving impulse control, growing emotional intelligence, learning to regulate, and so much more.

➤ Is Play Therapy Right for Your Child?

Probably! Play therapy is highly recommended for all children ages 8 or younger and recommended for many kids up to age 12.

➤ Play Therapy for ADHD Children

ADHD kids often benefit from play therapy because we can focus on all the symptoms that come from ADHD. We focus on things like regulation, emotional intelligence, and social awareness as well as decreasing anger.

➤ Play Therapy for Autistic Children

Autistic kids can thrive with play therapy. We use it to model social relationships, improve flexible thinking, decrease anger and so much more.

➤ Play Therapy for Social Anxiety, Anger Management, and More

When these challenges present with ADHD or Autism, play therapy is the go to recommendation for most children.

Why choose a Registered Play Therapist in Huntersville?

Although many therapists advertise using play therapy, our therapists are actually trained in best protocols for ADHD and Autistic children. Play therapy used in a typical modality will not work for ADHD or Autistic kids. Our therapists have additional training and supervision specifically on supporting these kids, meaning we are more qualified than most other therapists.

Michelle is a Registered Play Therapy-Supervisor meaning she has the ability to train and supervise those pursuing this credential.

Alyse Bone is a Registered Play Therapist and all of our remaining staff are in the process of working towards licensure as a RPT. Those that are in this process work with a qualified supervisor in addition to supervision with Michelle.

➤ What does a Play Therapy session look like?

Play therapy sessions vary a lot and are very dependent on your child. Typically sessions are only with the therapist and your child because kids often act differently with their parents present. As a result, we focus on doing individual sessions that target your child’s goals in a play therapy setting.

➤ Parent coaching with play therapy sessions

Parent coaching is essential for ADHD and Autistic kids and is a hallmark of the Dandelion process. We recognize that active parent participation not only dramatically reduces the length of therapy for a child, but also makes a significant difference in achieving key goals. The goal of these parent sessions is to support parent understanding of diagnosis as well as to give parents the skills to maintain progress outside of sessions. Without parent assistance, the hard work your child does goes nowhere, thus parenting is an expectation of working with us.

The Dandelion Difference

We do our best to make the process of therapy exactly what you need.

Teacher Recommendations

Unlimited Calls and Email

Written Accommodations

Yoga and Mindfulness

Weekly Parent Sessions

Due to our intensive parenting support process, in addition to individual weekly child sessions, weekly parenting sessions are expected at the beginning of therapy. The duration of these sessions depends on the level of distress in the family and the level of parenting needs. With meeting weekly, many families meet their goals in 6-8 months!

Why do we not talk about your child in front of them?

ADHD and Autistic children are very aware when people talk about them, thus we choose not to share negatives or concerns in front of them, and we encourage you to do the same. We are focusing on improving self esteem, confidence and problem solving skills and as our children are oftentimes in trouble, they are very hypersensitive to the comments made about them. We use the time in parent coaching to focus on any negatives or concerns, so that we are not impacting the effectiveness of play therapy.

Why do we call ourselves a 'special play friend'?

Oftentimes we teach our kids about stranger danger, so when a therapist is identified as a friend it can make it so much easier to connect and begin services. ‘Special play friend’ is a common phrase for Registered Play Therapists and play therapists in training. If you prefer another title, our first name is absolutely fine!

How to explain play therapy sessions to your child

Follow your instinct on what is the right way to explain play therapy to your child. Ultimately it is a place for them to come play while we teach parents new skills. The process is so much bigger, but kids do not typically need to know all the things we will be focusing on in that setting.

Why we ask you not to have your child say goodbye?

We have already done that in the play therapy office!

How do we know when it is time to graduate from play therapy sessions?

Frequently children let us know! Kids oftentimes will become resistant to attending sessions, act bored, or it ‘just becomes play’. This is when we know that therapy is ready to come to an end. Kids can always return for a refresher, and many families utilize summer and holiday breaks for these refresher sessions.