Sometimes, and more often lately, we see children for whom home is not a safe place (yet).  In those cases, our office needs to become the safe space first, and when clinically appropriate, the therapist might be the one to give a gift.

Last week the "My Little Ponies" were given to a young girl who was just removed from her home and placed in foster care.  She arrived with almost no personal belongings, and these were the first toys she was given that were her own.  Of course she was joyful to receive them, but perhaps more importantly, she spent the rest of her session arranging and re-arranging them into different configurations of families and using the toys to begin to talk about her highly-traumatic experience.

One of the donated stuffed animals was given to a little boy who has been dealing not only with a serious medical condition but with some extreme acting-out behaviors.  He is now in a very restrictive school setting but still struggling to control his anger.  His teacher suggested he use a stuffed animal to squeeze when he gets upset rather than kicking, hitting, and throwing things.  He went into a rage because he doesn't have any stuffed animals, which of course the teacher did not know.  Yesterday, however, his clinician was able to give him a teddy bear.  He hugged it the entire session and practiced how he might use it in class.  He was excited to go back to school to show his teacher, because for the first time, he is going back set up for success.