Should You Talk to Your Kids About Self-Harm?

Should you talk to your kids about self-harm?

Short answer: YES!

When it comes to talking to kids about self-harm, parents sometimes worry that bringing up the subject will put the idea in their child’s head. The truth is, though, your child is going to hear about self-harm at school, through their peers, and on social media. But, if you are the one talking about the topic, you can debunk any myths, make sure your kids have the facts, and establish that they can talk to you about anything. Learn More...

Why is There a Sandbox in Your Office?

It is International Play Therapy Week!  As a practice who provides play therapy for many of our clients, I thought it would be helpful to illustrate one of the interventions we regularly use in our offices with child, teen, and even some adult clients.

In most of our offices, we have a sand tray.  In play therapy, sand trays are used most often with a collection of small figures.  These small figures range from animals, humans, buildings, landscape, and other day to day items, which are all used within the sand tray.  Without geeking out and getting too far into Play Therapy Theory on you, I’ll just summarize that there are many ways a therapist who provides play therapy can utilize sand and miniature figures.  In both Sandtray Therapy and Sand Play Therapy, therapists provide access to a sand tray and miniatures to allow the client to create scenes in the tray.  Sometimes, depending on the client and the focus of the session, the scene completion is the intervention itself.  Other times, the scene may turn into an evolving story which is played through while the Therapist observes or even participates if the client invites them to do so.  Sometimes clients explain their sandtrays and other times they do not.  Use of sandtrays in therapy can be a powerful intervention for people at various ages. Learn More...

Telling Your Children You’re Divorcing: 5 Things to Consider

When couples decide to end a relationship and it leads to the breakup of a family with children, the amount of information to process can be somewhat overwhelming. While the separation may be what’s best for everyone involved, how the information is shared with children will be a memory they hold forever.  How this family change is shared can impact the trajectory of the entire transition for each child. This process should be handled with tender care and with an emphasis on how you, the parents, will provide physical, mental, and emotional safety for each child.  Here’s a simple list to guide you through a very challenging decision making process which can help you share this news with your children in the most honest and gentle way possible. Learn More...

The Secret to Co-Parenting Success: Shifting from a Personal Relationship to a Parental Relationship

As a Therapist who has spent over a decade working with families and children, I’ve had the great privilege of sharing the various journeys of many, many clients. Some journeys (especially at the end of my work with clients) take a positive turn; I cherish the moments when I see clients thriving and no longer needing therapy for the time being.  Most people, however, begin their work with me at the start of a challenging journey, such as a journey of separation and divorce. Since I specialize in working with children, teens, and parents, the caregivers typically reach out to me after they’ve made decisions to end their relationship. They are oftentimes seeking out support for the purposes of best caring for their children through the transition. Sometimes they need support in developing c0-parenting skills, and sometimes they need support in how to tell their children about the divorce (and most times, both).  If you need help in planning how to tell your children you are separating, this article may be helpful, here. Learn More...

How to Choose a Therapy Group

You’ve decided Group Therapy will help you meet your mental health treatment goals, and are excited to start this new journey – Yay! Now you may be wondering, which group is best for me? Here’s a few factors to consider…

Open versus Closed Groups: We offer both open and closed Group Therapy formats at Creative Family Counseling. Open groups do not have an end date, and allow for new members to join as current members exit. Closed groups are time-limited with a start and end date, and do not allow for new members once they’ve begun.  Learn More...

Introducing ‘Grow’ – A Group for Teens

“Am I the only one that feels like this?”

“Do other people talk to you about this kind of stuff?”

“This is super embarrassing, but…”

“I know this isn’t normal.”

“Literally no one gets it.” 

I’ve heard the above statements and questions over, and over, and over in the therapy room, especially when I am working with teenagers. In their world, they’re the only one with this experience, this struggle, this thought, this worry, this insecurity. This perception leads to feelings of isolation, loneliness, low self-esteem, and hopelessness.   Learn More...

New Group Offering: Artfully Inspired Therapy Group

Happy almost 2023! This time of transition is often characterized by reflection, resolutions, and future planning. Although we do not have to wait for a New Year to begin making changes, oftentimes this hopeful energy fuels us to bettering our overall health. One way to accomplish this is by seeking therapeutic support, such as Group Therapy. Group Therapy is a valuable resource to incorporate into one’s mental health regime. Learn More...

All About Group Therapy

We are so excited to begin offering Group Therapy to our community! Our team of expert clinicians are eager to begin implementing this new therapeutic modality in order to serve the needs of the community in a way we never have before.

Group Therapy supports individuals of all ages experiencing concerns such as challenging social interactions, low self worth, difficulty managing stressors, feelings of anxiety or depression, feelings of isolation, or struggling with life transitions. Group Therapy is a highly effective therapeutic modality that may be implemented as a stand alone mental health treatment, or in addition to other forms of therapy such as individual, family, or couples counseling. Learn More...

A Day in the Life of a Play Therapist: Attending a Play Therapy Conference

Have you ever wondered what a day at a play therapy conference might look like? I can assure you, it’s a lot of fun! I recently attended a fun Play Therapy Conference focused on Puppets in Play Therapy and Nature Play Therapy. Here are some highlights of the conference. After checking in I found my seat with some colleagues from Creative Family Counseling and some play therapists from Hazard, Ky. We chatted a bit and then our trainer, Jaime Lynn Langely, LCSW, RPT-S, started the class with a fun challenge. She had us list all the ways we might use a small brown paper bag in play therapy. I listed 11 which was the most of all the people in attendance. I won a prize for having the most responses! My clients will definitely use these prizes. This was a great way to start the conference! Learn More...

Therapist Spotlight: Tiffany Keith Offers Insight to the Burned-Out-Momma

Recently, Tiffany Keith, Marriage and Family Therapy Associate at the Creative Family Counseling Lyndon Practice, was featured in an article by Tonilyn Hornung on the website Mother Untitled. Hornung and Keith discuss the history of motherhood and professionalism and how past expectations for mothers in the home may need to be re-evaluated and discussed within a healthy partnership in the article titled “How to Clear the Outdated Stereotypes Cluttering Your Home.” You can hear what Tiffany had to say in the full article, here! Learn More...