It can be difficult to help a child or adolescent when a loved one has a serious or life-limiting medical illness, or complicated injury. Many parents and caregivers want to protect their kids and find themselves unsure of what to say and do. This often results in kids feeling worried about the unknown thing they don’t understand, but can feel is happening. Our Certified Child Life Specialists are professionally trained to educate and support children and teens through a diagnosis or traumatic event resulting in injury. Through the Wonders & Worries curriculum, we can help you and your family navigate this uncertain time. Illness and injury education and support is available for children, adolescents, and young adults.

Whether from the death of a family member or friend, a divorce, the loss of an ability, or another life transition, grief impacts each individual in unique ways. Many people who are grieving feel overwhelming sadness, anger, and anxiety. Often families find themselves facing a poor prognosis and uncertain outcomes which lead to grief before a death has actually occurred; this is called anticipatory grief. Our Certified Grief Counselors and child life specialists, are available to guide you through the phases and tasks of grieving while helping you process your grief in a healthy way. Grief and loss counseling is available for children and adolescents.

How do we learn what to do with big feelings? Who teaches us how to recognize emotions and express them in healthy ways? What would it look like to live in an emotionally healthy society? Our Emotional Wellness Specialists help kids and teens learn where feelings come from, how to recognize feelings when they appear, and how to respond to feelings proactively and productively. We can help your kids and teens learn how to make sense of big feelings and develop a growth mindset. Unlike counseling, our approach to emotional wellness is future oriented and is structured to guide clients toward desired goals and outcomes. Emotional wellness support and coaching is available for children, adolescents, and young adults.