Theraplay in St. Louis: Building Connection Through Play
If you're a parent feeling disconnected from your child or unsure how to rebuild trust after a tough season, you're not alone and you’re not without support. At Bud to Bloom Play Therapy in St. Louis, we offer Theraplay® informed services, powerful and engaging approach that helps children and caregivers repair relationships, deepen connection, and rediscover joy together.
Whether you're searching for Theraplay near me or looking for an adoption competent therapist who understands the unique needs of adoptive families, we’re here to help.
What Is Theraplay?
Theraplay® is an evidence-based, attachment-focused form of play therapy that uses joyful, engaging, sometimes silly activities to strengthen the bond between caregivers and children. It’s built on the foundation of four key qualities of healthy relationships: structure, engagement, nurture, and challenge.
Sessions are guided by a therapist trained in Theraplay who designs playful and emotionally attuned activities to help caregivers and children experience closeness in a safe and structured way. While these games may appear lighthearted, they are powerful tools for healing and often deeply emotional.
For many families, play has become strained or even absent altogether. Theraplay offers a way back to connection, giving caregivers tools to tune in, show up with warmth, and meet their child in moments of emotional vulnerability and need. Theraplay is an amazing approach to help parents experiencing burn out or blocked care reconnect to their child and themself.
Who Is Theraplay For?
Theraplay is a wonderful fit for many families, especially those navigating:
Emotional and behavioral challenges
Anxiety or emotional withdrawal
Big feelings, tantrums, or difficulty with co-regulation
Parent-child conflict or disconnection
Attachment disruptions, trauma, or loss
Adoption and foster care transitions
In our office in St. Louis we see Theraplay used most as a therapy for adoptees and foster youth, or children with attachment disruptions or children going through transitions that may leave them feeling uncertain. Many children who have experienced adoption, especially if they’ve had trauma, or multiple placements, carry attachment wounds that affect how they connect, trust, and regulate. These wounds may show up as avoidance, defiance, people-pleasing, controlling behavior, clinginess or deep fear of rejection.
Theraplay provides a unique space for adopted children to experience consistent, attuned caregiving in a relational setting. Through simple but powerful interactions like feeding, rocking, games, and mirroring, caregivers and children can begin to rewire the connection patterns that were disrupted early on allowing them to experience safety and build trust. Theraplay is also beneficial for the caregiver as the playful approach allows you to reconnect to your child in new ways and begin to rebuild bonds that may have been strained.
Why Theraplay Is Ideal for Adoptive Families
Adoption is often described as a beautiful and redemptive journey, but it is also layered with loss, grief, and identity and relational complexities . That’s why it’s so important to work with an adoption competent therapist who understands the nuances of this experience.
At Bud to Bloom, we understand that parenting an adoptee comes with unique joys and challenges. We also understand that traditional talk therapy isn’t always effective for children, especially those who have experienced developmental trauma. That’s where Theraplay comes in.
Theraplay focuses on the here and now. Rather than talking about problems, we engage children and caregivers in healing moments, helping the child experience safety, care, and connection in real time, instead of just talking about it. This felt experience of connection is what allows children to slowly let down their guard, trust their caregivers, and begin to rewrite their story of what it means to be in a relationship. It can begin to shift the narrative that relationship is scary, unpredictable to relationship being something positive and safe.
What Happens in a Theraplay Session?
Theraplay is designed to be physically and emotionally engaging. In most sessions, we:
Remove our shoes and settle onto cozy floor mats
Use fun and connection-based games selected for you and your child’s unique needs and to work towards their goals
Incorporate nurturing touch, shared eye contact, movement, and rhythm (of course we make accommodations for children that need them, the session is all about meeting the needs of the child)
Support the caregiver in leading and guiding while the therapist coaches and facilitates
A typical session lasts 45 minutes and includes both you and your child. Your therapist will guide the session in real-time, helping you stay connected even when emotions run high. Every third or fourth session includes a separate parent session to help you process, troubleshoot, and understand your child’s behavior through the lens of attachment and development.
Theraplay sessions follow a few simple but powerful unspoken rules:
Stick together – We attempt to stay connected and engaged in the session.
No hurts – Emotional safety is just as important as physical safety.
Have fun – Play is the language of healing and shared joy can be regulating .
Adults are in charge – When children feel safe, they can let go and be kids and trust that the adults can run the show.
Theraplay can involve movement, physical games, and touch. If you or your child have physical limitations or sensory needs, your therapist will work with you to adapt each activity to fit your comfort level. The goal is to create an experience of joyful connection, safety, and attunement.
Specialized Training for Adoption and Attachment
At Bud to Bloom, we’re not just trained in play therapy, we’re deeply committed to adoption competence and attachment-informed care.
Several of our therapists have completed the rigorous Training for Adoption Competency (TAC), a nationally recognized certification that equips therapists with advanced knowledge in:
The impact of early trauma on development
Loss, grief, and identity formation in adoptees
Complex dynamics in adoptive and foster families
Attachment disruptions and therapeutic parenting
Culturally responsive and trauma-informed care
In addition, our team includes clinicians trained in Theraplay Level One and Two, as well as other attachment-based modalities like, Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP).
We also bring lived experience and clinical insight into the racial, cultural, and identity-based dynamics that are often present in transracial and cross-cultural adoptions and foster placements.
When you choose Bud to Bloom for Therapy, you’re choosing a team that sees the whole family and offers care that is not only playful and effective, but thoughtful, respectful, and inclusive.
Finding a Theraplay Therapist Near You
If you’ve been searching for Theraplay near me, an adoption competent therapist near me, or therapy for adoptees in the St. Louis area, we’d love to connect.
Our warm and experienced team is ready to walk with you and your child on this healing journey. Whether you're looking to improve everyday interactions or repair deeper relational ruptures, Theraplay can help you rediscover what it means to enjoy parenting again and feel connected as a family.
Ready to Start?
Lets:
Rebuild trust
Reignite joy
Rediscover connection
Meet Our Therapists trained in Theraplay Jasmine, Molly and Frances (link to about page)
Schedule a consultation today and find out if Theraplay is the right fit for your family. (link to the contact page)