Creating Solutions Psychology

Children’s Counselling and Play Therapy in Edmonton

Therapy provides a safe space for kids to express emotions, develop coping skills, and navigate changes. Through talk, play, or creative methods, kids learn and grow to face life’s challenges.

When your child is struggling and you need support

Is your child experiencing anxiety, behavioral challenges, or emotional distress? Does it feel like they are overwhelmed with school, friends, or changes in their life?

Children’s therapy provides a safe, supportive space to help them express feelings, develop coping skills, and build confidence.

Common issues addressed in children’s therapy include:

  • anxiety,

  • depression,

  • ADHD,

  • trauma and loss,

  • bullying and peer pressure,

  • social and learning difficulties, and

  • family or life transitions.

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A woman with red hair sitting on a couch with two young children, one of them holding a tablet.

How Counselling and Play Therapy can make a difference for a child

Emotional Expression and Regulation: children often struggle to express their emotions verbally. Activity-based therapy provides a safe way to communicate and process difficult things.

Building Coping Skills: children learn effective coping strategies for stress, trauma, or other behaviour challenges.

Healing From Trauma and Loss: children who have experienced trauma, grief, or abuse may find it additionally difficult to verbalize their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Play and activities support processing in a non-threatening way; enhancing their resilience and healing.

Counselling can make a significant difference in a child’s emotional, social, and psychological development.

Boosting Self-Esteem & Confidence: in therapy children gain a sense of control over their emotions and experiences. This empowerment helps build confidence, independence, and a stronger sense of self-worth.

Improving Behaviour & Academic Performance: many behavioural issues come from underlying emotional distress. Therapy supports children to better understand their emotions and triggers and with greater regulation, children’s behaviour, including focus, tends to improve. Specific academic strategies are also explored.

Managing Change and Difficult Situations: there are many circumstances in a child’s life that are outside of their direct control, often leading to distress and resistance. Therapy can support children to learn to focus on what they can control, enhancing their sense of mastery.

  • Nonverbal Expression: Through toys, games, art and imaginative activities, children can express thoughts and feelings they may not have the words for.

    Therapeutic Relationship: The therapist builds a trusting relationship, observes play patterns, guides interactions, and introduces scenarios to encourage growth and healing.

    Child-Centered and Direct Approaches: The child will lead the session and the therapist follows their play cues to understand their world and emotions (Child-Centred). The therapist introduces specific activities or themes to address particular issues (Direct).

  • Play therapy is a powerful, evidence-based approach that helps children express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences through play—often their most natural form of communication. It allows them to express emotions they may struggle to verbalize. Play therapy is especially effective for children facing emotional, behavioral, social, or developmental challenges, play therapy offers a safe, supportive space where kids can explore difficult experiences, build coping skills, and develop greater self-awareness.

    Through age-appropriate techniques such as sand tray play, role-playing, storytelling, art, and therapeutic games, trained therapists guide children in working through issues like anxiety, trauma, grief, ADHD, and family changes. Play therapy fosters emotional regulation, problem-solving, confidence, and healthier relationships.

    Whether a child is struggling with big emotions or adjusting to life transitions, play therapy meets them where they are—empowering them to make sense of their world and build resilience in a creative, supportive way. Allowing children to implement change in an emotionally safe and developmentally appropriate way.

  • CBT focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thought patterns that lead to negative emotions or behaviors. Because children may struggle to articulate their feelings, techniques like storytelling, games, role-playing, and visual aids to make the process engaging and understandable.

    Key CBT Techniques for Children

    • Cognitive Restructuring: Helping children recognize negative or irrational thoughts to replace them with more balanced and beneficial ones.

    • Behavioral Strategies: Encouraging positive behaviors through reinforcement, role-playing, and problem-solving exercises.

    • Relaxation and Coping Skills: Teaching deep breathing, mindfulness, and other stress-reduction techniques.

    • Gradual Exposure: Helping children face fears in a manageable and structured way, reducing anxiety over time.

  • Somatic therapy helps children recognize and release stored tension, anxiety, or trauma through physical awareness and movement-based techniques. Playful and engaging activities are used to help children feel safe and comfortable while exploring emotions.

    Key Somatic Therapy Techniques for Children

    • Body Awareness: Helping children recognize physical sensations linked to emotions, such as tightness when anxious or warmth when happy.

    • Breathwork: Teaching deep breathing exercises to promote relaxation and emotional regulation.

    • Movement and Play: Using activities like yoga, dance, or sensory play to encourage self-expression and release built-up stress.

    • Grounding Techniques: Engaging in physical activities, such as pressing feet into the floor or holding a weighted object, to create a sense of safety and stability.

  • Children naturally understand the world through stories. Narrative therapy harnesses this by allowing them to explore their emotions, thoughts, and experiences in a way that feels engaging and empowering. Storytelling, drawing, role-playing, and creative writing to help children reshape their personal narratives in a positive and meaningful way.

    Key Narrative Therapy Techniques for Children

    • Externalization: Helping children see their problems as something outside of themselves (“worry monster” instead of “I am anxious”), reducing self-blame and fear.

    • Rewriting the Story: Encouraging children to reframe negative experiences, emphasizing their strengths and abilities

    • Exploring Alternative Perspectives: Helping children recognize different ways to interpret situations, fostering confidence and resilience.

    • Creating Personal Metaphors: Using characters, superheroes, or imaginative scenarios to help children understand and express their emotions.

Techniques used in children’s therapy

Who Provides Child Counselling and Play Therapy?

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How Children’s Therapy At Creating Solutions Works

  • Creating Solutions requires the informed consent of all guardians to proceed with therapy services involving a minor, unless indicated otherwise by legal documents. If you have documents related to decision making for a child please provide those at the time of intake.

  • Parent involvement in therapy sessions is based on a variety of factors including the child’s age, comfort level in therapy sessions, and therapeutic goals. Your child’s therapist will be able to talk directly with you about what is best to meet the needs of your child.

  • Parents are able to access information about how therapy is progressing through the therapist in a variety of ways. These might include parent update sessions, emails, and discussion at either the beginning or the end of each therapy session. Each therapist works with the guardians/parents to develop a method of communication that fosters trust with the child and ensures the adults in the child’s life are working together.

Setting Up Therapy for a Child

If you are ready to get your child started contact us to complete the intake and schedule an initial session.

If you are not sure what you may need to get started let us know you want to book a phone consultation with one of our child therapists to ask questions and get clear direction.

A woman and a girl playing with toys at a table in a living room.