CINCINNATI-BASED PLAY THERAPY & EMDR FOR CHILDREN
Nurturing happy, healthy kids from the inside out
When you’re sensing that something feels “off” with your child, it can be confusing and worrying.
How do you know what’s just typical kid stuff and when there’s more going on? You’re usually the expert on your child, but right now you might be feeling like you’re in over your head.
Maybe you’ve noticed anxiety getting in the way of school, friendships, or activities.
Maybe unpredictable mood swings are making it hard to connect.
You might not know why these changes are coming up, or your child might have experienced trauma that’s shaken up their world.
When your child is struggling, the whole family feels it.
As the parent, you get stressed about what’s going on (and, if we’re being honest, maybe frustrated too. That’s human!). Meanwhile, your kiddo’s dealing with intense feelings that might not make sense to them or their developing brain.
If all of these emotions have led to sleepless nights and family tension, you’re not alone—and support is out there.
Parenting is hard. There’s no “right,” “best,” or “normal” way to do it.
And the same is true for being a kid.
Therapy is a safe space to address your child’s symptoms, assess what other levels of support may or may not be needed, and help you sort through all the information out there to figure out what works best for your family.
Going to therapy doesn’t mean there’s something “wrong” with your child or with your parenting. Kids often act in ways that are surprising, unpredictable, or frustrating (they are kids, after all) and sometimes they need some skilled help sorting through their feelings.
It’s a smart idea to call in some external, neutral, empathetic support for your child’s well-being, as well as your confidence as a parent. You’re the expert on your child, and we know a thing or two about development—so let’s work together to support you both.
Play Therapy and EMDR for Children
Child-centered support for trauma, anxiety, and behavior challenges
With tools and techniques tailored just to them, children become more self-aware. They cultivate skills to express themselves, cope with intensified feelings, understand their emotions, and build confidence.
The symptoms that weighed them down start to feel lighter, and with that comes a lot of relief for the whole family. You’re able to connect in healthier ways as your child applies what they learn, and you learn how to even more empathetically and skillfully nurture your child.
At Conscious Roots Counseling, play therapy and/or EMDR sessions take place weekly in our Cincinnati office and last 50 minutes.
You’ll also meet monthly with your child’s therapist on your own for updates, discussion, and helpful strategies to support your child’s progress.
Play Therapy
What is it, and how does it work?
Play therapy might sound like fun (and it can be!), but it’s definitely not just playing for the sake of it. It’s a carefully guided process where a therapist picks up on your child’s cues and gently helps them navigate their feelings and experiences.
Play therapy can help with:
Anxiety, depression, and fear
Trauma and grief
Life transitions
Family conflict
Impulse control
Social struggles
Through play, kids express themselves in ways they might not be able to with just words, so it’s a window into their world that feels natural and easy for them.
For example, a child dealing with a new sibling may role play taking care of a baby doll, allowing them to express conflicting feelings. Creative activities like painting create open-ended space to explore inner thoughts and emotions. Games with rules offer opportunities to experience control vs. flexibility, and to regulate emotional responses accordingly.
Guided by a Registered Play Therapist™, your child can feel relief, build confidence, and learn kid-appropriate tools for healthy wellbeing.
EMDR for Children
Specialized trauma and anxiety support
Trauma and significant stress can lodge deep inside a child’s mind. Lingering emotions can stick around long after a distressing experience has happened, which can often lead to anxiety, fear, and other mood issues.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a specialized form of therapy that can help children safely process these experiences and find emotional relief.
The process uses bilateral stimulation—activating alternate sides of the brain—to engage the brain’s information processing center. A therapist guides your child through revisiting a distressing memory or topic while they alternate using both sides of their body through listening to music, drawing, or drumming.
This process helps the brain to resolve suppressed emotions and experience less distress related to the memory or topic. It’s not that traumatic events disappear from memory, but they shift to neutral events that don’t hijack your child with fear or pain. (Kids might describe the memory as feeling less vivid, further away, or fuzzier.)
Relief comes from no longer feeling bad, afraid of, or trapped in the past. Kids can sleep better, regulate their emotions, concentrate more, and worry less.
Support for the whole family
Prioritizing the mental and emotional health of the whole family is our goal.
Because you’re the captain of your child’s care team, we’ll meet monthly with you to keep you updated, answer questions, and support you with recommendations.
After all, we give you the playbook, but you’re the ones who help run the plays at home. It’s a commitment, but one we make as collaborative and manageable as possible—and it makes a world of difference for your child.
We’re here for your child’s well-being, and yours.
Our philosophy
At Conscious Roots Counseling, our professional expertise is in supporting kids and parents, but we understand the challenges personally, too.
Will my child make friends? How do I support them when they feel anxious or sad? I know it’s not their fault they’re acting this way, but are we ever going to be able to make it out the door again without a scene?
We’re here to empower you to understand and nurture your child’s unique emotional needs. Through compassionate therapy specifically tailored to your child’s world, we uncover the roots of their behaviors and emotions and help set them up with skills to grow into their best selves.
Guided by a Registered Play Therapist™, you and your child will be able to better navigate through rocky patches and cultivate more connection, healing, and lifelong resilience.
Questions about therapy for children?
We’re an open book.
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When in doubt, it’s never a bad idea to seek out therapy. Whether a teacher might have mentioned some behavior changes or you’ve started feeling like something is off, trust your intuition. Noticeable changes in behavior, intense emotions, or trouble focusing can signal it's time to reach out. Our compassionate therapists offer assessments to understand your child's world, then customize a plan to nurture their sense of safety and growth.
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Yes! Not every therapist is trained to work with children, so it’s important to find someone who is. At Conscious Roots Counseling, your child’s therapist is a Registered Play Therapist™ for children and is clinically trained in EMDR, so you can trust that they’re getting support perfectly tailored to them.
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Every child's needs are unique, so there's no set duration we can predict. We tailor both the therapeutic approach and pace to your child, with input from you as the parent. Some kids show significant improvements in outlook and coping skills after just 6-8 weeks. For others, more complex issues like trauma may take a few months to truly process and resolve.
In general, we recommend consistency for a minimum of 2-3 months to cement new patterns. Building rapport and trust also takes time before a child feels safe enough to really open up and explore tender issues. We'll check in with you monthly on their progress and goals, figuring out together when your child might be ready to “graduate” from therapy.
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We’re here to help you understand your child’s symptoms, evaluate if their symptoms meet a diagnosis, and to make referrals as necessary. We can make additional recommendations for support, such as consulting your pediatrician, contacting an occupational therapist, or looping in their teachers, and help guide you on how to proceed.
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You’ll meet monthly with your child’s therapist on your own so that there’s a dedicated space to discuss progress, share updates, and ask questions. This session is billed as a regular appointment.
If your child is 12+, we work with them to figure out how much they’re comfortable with us sharing with you. (Privacy for older kids is important in order to help them feel safe really opening up.) We’ll always be upfront with you about any dangerous or concerning behaviors, but updates for older kids might be more general like, “They’re having a hard time finding the right coping skills for themselves, but they’re working hard.”
Children’s therapy almost always happens in person, but we often work with parents virtually. We understand that driving back and forth to appointments can be a challenge, so we do our best to accommodate your needs and schedule.
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We accept CareSource plans.
If this is not your insurance, services will be billed directly to you according to our private pay therapy rates. We can offer you “superbills” that can be submitted to your insurance for possible reimbursement. We know this may sound confusing—please reach out and we can help explain this process!
Our 2024 therapy rates are as follows:
Intake session = $150
45-50 minute individual session = $125
Reports = $30
Phone calls after the first 10 min = $50
No show/Late cancel charge = $125
Court appearances = $3,000
Depending on your insurance plan’s out-of-network benefits, it’s possible that your insurance may reimburse you for some of the cost of therapy.
To determine your out-of-network benefits, you can use this guide. Feel free to also reach out and we can explain how out-of-network benefits work.
Plant the seeds today for a thriving child tomorrow
You’ve got this, with some skilled, compassionate backup.