Connect for Kids – West Midlands Theraplay® group sessions for families

Does your child need extra support with social and emotional development? Book onto our FREE West Midlands group Theraplay® sessions. Supported by experienced therapists with lived experience, you can share in fun and engaging play activities to build your child’s confidence and resilience.

Workshop details

  • Dates for 2025: Every Tuesday from 28th January, running for 8 weeks
  • Duration: Sessions last up to 45 minutes, during term times only
  • Location: In person at Our Place Community Hub, Sutton Coldfield, B72 1RN
  • Cost: Funded at no cost to parents and carers (see below)
  • Suitable for: West Midlands parents and their children aged around 5-10 years (these ages are a guideline, not a prerequisite)

How to book onto Connect for Kids group sessions

Please fill in this enquiry form to secure a place or register your interest for future sessions:

Enquiry form »

Are Connect for Kids group sessions really free?

Yes, they are. These sessions are fully funded and have been provided at no extra cost to you through generous funding grants.

As part of the process, we will ask you to complete psychological outcome measures. This helps us improve our services, and also provides essential proof of our impact to funding organisations. With this information you can better understand your child’s progress, and are also playing an important part to keep these sessions funded and free for parents now and in the future!

Is a Connect for Kids Theraplay® group right for me?

If you are a UK parent or carer and your child is of school age and fits any of the criteria below, you are welcome to book onto a Connect for Kids group session:

We welcome parents and carers with…

  • Children needing extra support with social and emotional development
  • Children struggling with self confidence, self esteem, sense of belonging, and trust to care for themselves and others.
  • Children struggling with neurodiversity, or challenging childhood behaviours

Participants are asked to complete an evaluation via link, to help us improve our services and evidence our impact to funding organisations so that these services can continue to be free.

What are the benefits of Connect for Kids Theraplay® sessions?

Benefits to your child

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

Benefits to you

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.

What to expect from Connect for Kids Theraplay® group sessions

What is Theraplay®?

Some children are going to need more opportunities to feel safe. Theraplay® is an interactive therapy that relies on healthy playful interactions to create this sense of safety. We are all wired for human connection and our Connect for Kids sessions help children and parents find safe ways to enjoy this.

Group overview

A Theraplay® group is an adult led and structured session where children and their parents share fun and engaging play activities together.

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.

Everyone will have a lot of fun while enjoying co-operative and nurturing activities that build children’s self confidence, self esteem, sense of belonging, and trust to care for self and others.

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.

Group leaders

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

What parents say about Connect for Kids:

“My daughter and I absolutely loved the group!”

“I feel more connected and understanding of my child and also feel more confident in using the Theraplay games.”

“Lots of fun games to play and repeat at times that are more stressful to encourage calmness.”

“My children are connecting together much more frequently.”

“I thought the games and structure of the session were really great and everyone was able to feel safe to take part or just watch if they wanted to.”

Further support

Did you know? You can also sign up cost-free to our Connect for Parents workshops. If you’re struggling and feeling isolated as a parent or carer, lesson the load with free online workshops facilitated by our therapists. We provide expert support, and you can network with other parents to share your experiences and challenges in a safe environment. 

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