Trauma Therapy in St. Louis

Trauma can look like:

  • Divorce

  • Experiencing a medical illness, injury, or major surgery

  • Death of a family member

  • Witnessing or experiencing violence

  • Living in an area that feels unsafe

  • Experiencing neglect or abuse

  • Experiencing a natural disaster

  • So much more!

Helping children experience joy and healing

Often when people think about trauma they think about car accidents, or physical abuse, but trauma can include any experience that overwhelms a child’s nervous system and their ability to cope. Often parents wonder if their child’s experience “counts” as trauma because it isn’t a clearly defined event.

At Bud to Bloom Play Therapy we understand that there are many life experiences that can be traumatic for a child, and use approaches that can help support healing from these experiences.

Your child might:

  • struggle to express their emotions in safe and healthy ways

  • be anxious or hypervigilant in new places, or with new people

  • show a regression in behavior- suddenly wetting the bed, or sucking their thumb again

  • feel distrustful of others, especially when close relationships are desired

  • fear rejection from family or friends

  • lie or misrepresent the truth in an attempt to maintain connections

As a parent you might find yourself:

  • unsure of how to talk about happened 

  • confused about the “right” way to respond to your child’s behaviors because you have received so much conflicting information

  • worried about how their traumatic past will impact the rest of their life 

  • ashamed because you feel like the child’s trauma is your fault

  • unsure about how to best support your child’s healing 

At Bud to Bloom Play Therapy we help by:

using play to help children process their trauma 

using play to help kids learn how to respond to limits and boundaries

meeting directly with you to help you understand how trauma impacts the brain and development and how you can support healthy development

coaching parents about how to understand their child’s behavior and how to respond to it

using play to foster connection and trust between parents and children

teaching and practicing coping strategies to manage big emotions

While trauma can impact your child’s brain and ability to regulate, therapy can support your child in finding a sense of safety and security that allows the brain to heal too.