Services

“Theraplay is a child and family therapy for building and enhancing attachment, self-esteem, trust in others, and joyful engagement. It is based on the natural patterns of playful, healthy interaction between parent and child and is personal, physical, and fun. Theraplay interactions focus on four essential qualities found in parent-child relationships: Structure, Engagement, Nurture, and Challenge. Theraplay sessions create an active, emotional connection between the child and parent or caregiver, resulting in a changed view of the self as worthy and lovable and of relationships as positive and rewarding.”

At Nurturing Village, we come from a strong basis in the belief that all children do the very best they can on a daily basis.  Our services of parent-child social and emotional skills coaching is based on learning about your child’s nervous system and helping to co-regulate with the belief that children do well when they CAN.

Often, sessions consist both of play and teaching, with parents along-side their children so that these skills can be transferred to use at home. Children that benefit from these type of services often have some difficulty in school as well, so at Nurturing Village we strongly believe in bridging home, school, community, and counseling services so that we are all working together to be the best support possible for your family and child. Along with play sessions, some of our providers use a neural listening exercise (Safe and Sound Protocol) to help calm your child’s fight-flight reactions.

Children that benefit from these type of services may:

– have behavioral difficulty at home or in school
– have emotional meltdowns on a frequent basis
– have difficulty making or keeping friends
– have difficulty understanding social situations
– and other similar needs!

Children behave well and get along well with others when they can. This is true even for older children and teens.  (Even us, as adults.)

Sometimes, parents will notice that their child or teen has a particular skill but is not using it when in conflict or when their child/teenager has “big emotions”. Sometimes, parents will notice that their child/teen does not have the skills necessary to problem-solve, maintain friendships, and manage emotional regulation.

At Nurturing Village, we use a neuro-sequential approach with a variety of cognitive-behavioral strategies, curriculums, and skill-building techniques to help your child be able to handle big emotions, build friendships, and confront every day challenges to the best of their ability. When children and teens are emotionally-regulated and connected, they can meet their best potential! (and so can we, parents!)

Since the COVID pandemic, Nurturing Village has seen a rise in children who are displaying signs of high levels of anxiety speaking around people outside of their nuclear family or with new people. Selective Mutism is a type of anxiety where children often can hold typical conversations at home, be playful, and comfortable and yet enter into the school system or be on the playground and be silent. Our goal is to work with you as a family and with your schools to help stretch your child’s nervous system to be able to use their “brave muscles” to speak in settings where they have previously been uncomfortable. This type of exposure therapy includes field trips and training you as parents on how to help your child use their brave as well.

Children are born into our world with a certain “root system” configuration – a certain way that their sensory system takes in the world and a certain emotional system. The Floortime approach meets children where they are at and builds upon their social interaction system using trusting relationships and small individual challenges in play.

We use this type of therapy to help children learn how to have genuine back-and-forth social conversation, learn to problem solve, and expand their flexible thinking and window of tolerance (frustration tolerance) all through interactive play.

Children that benefit from Floortime may include:

– children with emotional regulation concerns
– children with social interaction challenges
– children with behavioral challenges stemming from rigidity / inflexible thinking

The Safe and Sound protocol is a neural exercises based in the Polyvagal Theory.

Taken from the Unyte ILS website:

"The music of the Safe and Sound Protocol has been filtered through a patented, evidence-based algorithm that highlights specific sound frequencies that help regulate the nervous system.
Auditory processing is a window into the nervous system. By listening to the specially filtered music of the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) in the context of a therapeutic relationship, the nervous system can be repatterned to better perceive calming frequencies, enhancing regulation by changing the way it responds to cues from the environment."

If the Safe and Sound Protocol sounds like it might be a tool to help you or your child, please call us to hear mor