Nothing but CCPT

Child Centred Play Therapy works!

CCPT works because children often can’t explain big feelings with words yet—play is their natural language. In a safe, consistent, and accepting relationship with the therapist, children are able to express what’s happening inside, process difficult experiences, and practice new ways of coping. Over time, this builds inner security, emotional strength, and healthier behaviour from the inside out.

Typical outcomes of CCPT include:

Improved emotional regulation and fewer outbursts
Reduced anxiety, worry, and stress-related behaviour
Better self-esteem, confidence, and independence
Healthier attachment and stronger parent-child connection
Improved social skills and peer relationships
Less aggression, defiance, or withdrawal
Better focus, self-control, and coping skills (especially for ADHD-related challenges)
Increased resilience and overall emotional wellbeing

Helpful Additional Services

Parenting Workshops

Filial Therapy Workshops

Filial therapy workshops are structured 10-week parent–child programmes based on the principles outlined in Garry Landreth’s work on filial therapy. The workshops are presented every six months in a group setting and equip parents with practical therapeutic skills to strengthen connection and improve behaviour at home. Parents are guided and coached to use play-based techniques—such as emotional attunement, reflective listening, and healthy limit-setting—during special playtimes with their child. The focus is on empowering parents to become confident therapeutic agents in their child’s life, supporting emotional regulation, secure attachment, and lasting positive change within the family.

Filial Therapy Parent Consultations

As part of the therapy process, filial therapy principles and parental guidance are shared with parents during complimentary feedback sessions held after every five play therapy sessions. These sessions provide parents with practical direction on how to support their child emotionally and apply the skills their child is developing in therapy at home. The aim is to strengthen the parent–child relationship, promote consistency, and ensure that therapeutic progress is carried through into everyday family life.

ADHD Parent Couching and Support Groups

Parent Couching and Support Groups

ADHD coaching is an important support service for parents of children in play therapy, as it addresses the day-to-day challenges that often continue outside the therapy room. Research shows that children with ADHD benefit most when therapeutic work is supported by consistent, informed responses from the adults in their lives. ADHD coaching equips parents with practical strategies to better understand their child’s neurodevelopmental needs, improve emotional regulation, reduce conflict, and support attention, behaviour, and executive functioning at home and school. This service focuses on empowering parents with tools, routines, and communication skills that complement play therapy, strengthen the parent–child relationship, and promote more sustainable, long-term progress. ADHD coaching may be offered individually to parents or within a supportive group setting for parents of children with ADHD.

ADHD School Informational Talks

Odette offers school-based presentations for both teachers and parents, focused on helping them better understand ADHD, executive functioning, and how the ADHD brain works. These practical, informative sessions address common ADHD-related challenges such as attention difficulties, impulsivity, emotional regulation, executive functioning skills, and behaviour—both in the classroom and at home. The aim is to equip adults with greater insight, practical strategies, and a compassionate, neurodevelopmentally informed approach that supports children’s learning, emotional wellbeing, and long-term development. Contact her via email to schedule an informational meeting if you consider inviting her to a school function.

Individual ADHD Executive Functioning Plan and Support

Odette works closely with parents to compile an individualised, practical plan that supports the day-to-day executive functioning needs of a child with ADHD. This plan focuses on creating clear routines, structure, and realistic expectations around areas such as organisation, emotional regulation, attention, and transitions. Parents are guided step by step on how to implement strategies at home in a way that is consistent, supportive, and suited to their child’s unique strengths and challenges, helping to reduce overwhelm and promote greater confidence and independence over time.

Relationship Reset

A child–parent or family relationship reset is a short-term, play-based therapeutic process aimed at restoring connection, emotional safety, and healthy interaction patterns within the family system. When stress, behavioural challenges, or ongoing conflict strain relationships, this approach uses play and creative interaction to help children express themselves while supporting parents in responding with greater attunement and clarity. The process strengthens communication, rebuilds trust, and establishes more supportive boundaries and routines. We offer this as a 3–6 session plan, designed to create meaningful change and lay a healthier foundation for ongoing family connection and growth.

Rule of Thumb - Child Parent Relationship

Notice your child’s strengths and protect the relationship instead of making every interaction about problems.

Regulate yourself and set a calmer emotional tone rather than matching your child’s escalation.

When you parent poorly, acknowledge it, apologize, reconnect, and demonstrate how relationships recover.

Turn toward your child, move close, make comfortable eye contact, and show physically that you are present.

Look after your own emotional and physical needs so you have patience, acceptance, and steadiness to offer.

During emotional overwhelm, calm and connect first; save explanations and lessons for later.

Allow appropriate freedom and intervene only when safety, property, or essential boundaries require it.

Use a few clear, predictable boundaries and follow through calmly so your child knows what to expect.

When correcting or setting a boundary, use a short, calm statement instead of a lecture or debate.

Offer choices that match your child’s age and ability. As children mature and show responsibility, gradually give them more freedom and bigger decisions.

Allow manageable struggle, problem-solving, and responsibility so competence can develop.

Describe persistence, decisions, and improvement instead of making approval depend on performance.

Noticing says, “I see you, you matter, and you are worth knowing”—building self-worth from within.

Choose one or two developmentally important concerns and address them consistently.

Try to understand the feeling, need, or meaning beneath the behaviour before judging or correcting it.

Children are led by their emotions, not by logic. Connect with the feeling before expecting rational thinking.

Children learn from what adults do, not just what they say. Our actions shape their beliefs long after our words have faded.

I am here, I hear you,

I care and I delight in you.

Use brief everyday opportunities for affection, attention, listening, and reconnection.

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