Playful Therapy and Counselling - Shannon Hourigan

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The Seven Protective Childhood Experiences (PCE’s) are categories of childhood/adolescent experiences that are connected to improved mental health and social connectedness in adults.

The play therapy relationship enables the child to develop a sense of safety within the therapy space.

This 'felt safety' allows the child to develop regulation skills through coregulation with their therapist and subsequently begin to feel more positively about themselves, as their therapist notices and recognises wonderful things about them, increasing their self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth.

These increases in positive emotions allow the child to make mistakes, accept that situations may turn out differently than how they expect and take risks.

Richard Cohen’s “Zen and the Art of Early Childhood" 💕

Playful Therapy has 2 big milestones to acknowledge!

1 - we are coming up to our first anniversary of being in private practise!

2 - we are now at capacity and a waitlist applies across all playrooms

Thank you to all the families who have trusted me to support their children and to everyone who has supported, followed, referred or encouraged, I couldn't be more grateful!

This free program looks great and is being offered in Cobram!

Emotion Coaching - Connecting with our Kids Cobram Learn more about emotion coaching, understanding children’s emotional development and how to connect with your children.

Play Therapy meets the child where they are and works at their own pace

Children who attend play therapy sessions often find big feelings overwhelming, so they will become easily dysregulated at these times.

Each child has a different level of resilience, and their window of tolerance (what they can cope with) varies depending on their lived experiences.

When in the play therapy room, their therapist supports them by 'containing' their emotions and 'being with' them, coregulating them through the waves of overwhelm again and again until they realise they can make it through themselves.

Kids often have an idea of ‘brave’ as being something that announces itself with strength and certainty - but it so often isn’t anything like that.

Brave means brushing up against the edges of what feels safe, and pushing beyond that. Kids with anx1ety do this every day. The more we tilt their focus to their brave behaviour - the more they can see it, feel it, own it and live it.

We loved this movie, highly recommend to watch with your kids, but be sure to see the original first!

Inside Out 2 is good for our health and a must-watch for parents and teens, says doctor "Let’s take a cue from Riley and her emotions: embrace play, welcome all feelings, and remember that it's okay to be a little messy."

You might notice a familiar face in some of these photos
I attended this weekend family grief camp as a volunteer and had the best experience and can't wait to keep working with this amazing organisation

If you know of a family who has experienced the death of a parent, please get in touch

Wombat's Wish
wombatswish.org.au

Ways to be

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says 'I'll try again tomorrow.'" 💕 - Mary Ann Radmacher

♡ If you would like to be kept in the loop on everything Synergetic Play Therapy or get resources to support you on your journey, join us here: https://linktr.ee/synergeticplaytherapy ♡

Timely addition to the playroom! Have you seen Inside Out 2 yet??

Your Natural Learner - Leah McDermott 💛

♡ If you would like to be kept in the loop on everything Synergetic Play Therapy or get resources to support you on your journey, join us here: https://linktr.ee/synergeticplaytherapy ♡

Couldn't agree with this more ❤️❤️

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You know you're a Play Therapist when you forget to take off your police badge before going down the street to run all your errands
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Parenting can be like this sometimes

The Barooga playroom has been decorated by some extremely talented local children! Thanks so much to all those who shared their creativity to make this space look so wonderful

Parenting with humour, laughter, silliness and (with older teens) even pretend sarcasm has always been my style - and MY parents before that.
I have so many happy and funny memories of growing up. Of course this doesn’t prevent families from saving space for quiet time and close time and children who respond to other styles of parenting too.

Excited to welcome clients to the Barooga play space tomorrow!

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♡ If you would like to be kept in the loop on everything Synergetic Play Therapy or get resources to support you on your journey, join us here: https://linktr.ee/synergeticplaytherapy ♡

Please share to any families where a child has experienced the death of a parent

A Terrible Thing Happened

In the wake of a tragedy like was seen in Sydney this weekend, it can be really hard for kids to try and make sense of what they have seen and heard about

A few points that might be helpful when addressing with your child

- lots of kids are getting video and information from Youtube or TikTok which might not always be accurate. This can be a good time to chat about reliable sources of information
- Listen if your child brings it up and answer their questions as best you can with simple facts that are age appropriate
- acknowledge what they are feeling. Yes, it would have been very scary. Yes, it is hard to understand how someone could do that. Yes, you feel worried about going to a shopping centre or other large crowded place in case it happens again
- reassure them that while awful things like this unfortunately do happen, they are very rare
- focus on the helpers and heroes
- your child may need more reassurance or need to be close to you until the feeling of safety returns, especially at night. There may also be some regression such as increased separation anxiety, wetting the bed or accidents, baby talk etc

Here is a link to a story called A Terrible Thing Happened that tells about a child who saw something terrible, things that started to happen in their body afterwards and how they got through it. There is also an activity at the end that may be useful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFgjxM4nTg0

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns

Magination Press Story Time - Margaret M. Holmes Reads A Terrible Thing Happened Margaret Holmes reads A Terrible Thing Happened.This gently told and tenderly illustrated story is for children who have witnessed any kind of violent or tra...

We are excited to announce we will have a beautiful new space in BAROOGA in the Barooga Work Hub at 60-62 Nangunia St on Mondays starting May 6! We have been so thankful for all our clients who have been travelling to see us and are thrilled to now offer our services to the Cobram/Barooga community

We have now added a Wednesday in Yarrawonga to keep up with demand and will be doing some outreach as well.

NEW SCHEDULE as of May 2024
Monday - Barooga - very limited availability
Tuesday - Yarrawonga - limited availability
Wednesday - Yarrawonga/Outreach - limited availability
Thursday - Wangaratta - waitlist applies
Friday - Wangaratta - waitlist applies

Please reach out if Playful Therapy can help support your child or to find out more