These groups are suitable for all Birmingham parents and their children aged around 5-10 years. We are welcoming and inclusive and know that some of you are older or younger and would love to join in too, so age is not a prerequisite.

If you are a Birmingham parent or carer who fits any of the criteria below, you are welcome to book onto a Connect for Kids workshop.

• Parents who are struggling, emotionally or socially
• Parents who want to help their family feel safer
• Parents managing neurodiversity
• Parents who are finding their children’s emotional behaviour a challenge
• Parents facing challenges due to resettling, e.g. as a displaced / refugee family
• Parents who feel that their stories are not being heard or understood

Participants are asked to complete an evaluation via link, to help us improve our services.

Yes, they are, for the most part – with occasional exceptions which are priced at affordable rates and which you have no obligation to attend.

With funding from the National Lottery, we have established much needed and valued services in the community. We look forward to expanding further so that we can help more families over the next few years.

Our sessions support children by helping them to:

• Feel good about themselves
• Feel proud of themselves
• Feel loved
• Feel like they belong
• Express themselves through play
• Experience healthy interactions with adults
• Improve interactions with other children
• Trust other people
• Show care for themselves
• Show care for others
• Generally improve their emotional and social confidence

Parents and carers who have attended group sessions have told us they feel very connected with their children during and following the sessions. Many have also told us about how their relationship with their child/ren has improved as a result of attending the sessions.

Theraplay® as an intervention includes the parent because, through the therapist’s support, you’ll learn to attune to exactly what amount of structure, engagement, challenge and nurture your child needs. This is what helps you build the parent/child relationship. In a way, you get just as much out of Theraplay® as your child does!

You can also enjoy meeting other parents in the workshop whose children have similar needs.

Group games and activities

Our nervous systems are wired to detect danger, so creating time for the kind of play that builds relationships through creating connection is vital to children’s social and emotional development.

Many of the typical games parents can play at home, like Peekaboo or Hide and Seek, help children learn it is safe and fun to explore the world. When adults – especially those they feel safest with, like parents – join children in this play, they are relaxed and joyful and give children the message that the world is safe, and that they are safe. Play is more than just fun. Our Connect for Kids Theraplay® group sessions are certainly enjoyable, but also use play-based interactive therapy to make the activities as beneficial to children as possible.

These are not just play groups. They are therapeutic group sessions. Attending the initial parent session is mandatory as it helps you learn more about how to make the most of therapist-led Theraplay® group sessions with your child.

Workshop leaders

Connect for Kids workshops are facilitated by our qualified and experienced therapists. They have lived experience of the challenges you may be facing. In addition, they have all been trained in play therapies and Theraplay®, a relational support that uses play to build and strengthen relationships with your child.