Spring Groups
Barrie Clinic
“Keeping Your Cool – Part 1”
Keeping Your Cool – Part 1 is a 8-Week, 1hr group structured program designed to encourage your child to identify their emotional response to situations and/or triggering events that lead to verbal, physical, or environmental aggression and develop alternative ways of responding.
Topics covered include:
- Understanding how anger works
- Identifying feelings and emotions that can contribute to the feeling of anger
- Recognizing the cost/benefit of anger and aggression
- Rights and responsibilities
- Assertiveness communication
- How thoughts influence our emotions
Tuesdays
April 11th – May 30th (8 weeks)
Ages 8 – 12 | 5:00-6:00pm
$440
Registration closes March 31st, 2023. For all group programs there will be no refunds for any individual missed sessions or drop-outs. Due to the demands of our group programs, a non-refundable $50 deposit will be required to secure your child’s spot in our groups.
REGISTER HERE
“Keeping Your Cool – Part 2 – Everyone Has Problems”
This 8-Week program is designed for those participants who have completed Keeping Your Cool – Part 1 or have had previous exposure to working through personal triggers and emotional escalation.
- Week 1 – Will be about setting the stage for success and review expectations of the group
- Week 2 – Will review emotional triggers, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours and discuss how they play a key role in how we react to events
- Week 3 – Is about discovering an awareness that everyone faces problems that they must manage and begin developing the skills needed to avoid turning a small problem into something bigger.
- Week 4 – We start developing a circle of support and begin exploring the people in our lives that can help us manage problems that are too big to handle alone.
- Week 5 & 6– Putting things into practice. This is all about exploring ways we may behave that make small problems bigger and how to stop that from occurring as well as how to break down what feels like a big problem and make it smaller.
- Week 7 & 8– Is about setting the stage for continued learning and beginning to develop awareness by viewing things from the perspective of others. We will identify how to separate facts from opinions and discuss why this is important when dealing with others.
Mondays
April 10th – May 29th (8 weeks)
Ages 8 – 12 | 4:30 – 5:30pm
Ages 12 – 15 | 6:00-7:00pm
$440
Registration closes March 31st 2023. For all group programs there will be no refunds for any individual missed sessions or drop-outs. Due to the demands of our group programs, a non-refundable $50 deposit will be required to secure your child’s spot in our groups.
REGISTER HERE
“Happy Hour”
Growing up can be hard and although we know we can’t make the hard stuff go away, we can learn and practice some protective factors that help lighten the load and develop resiliency. This program is designed to help your child develop strategies that facilitate greater overall happiness, promote healthy coping skills, and encourages self-compassion.
Some topics/activities include:
- Mindfulness
- Taking care of your body
- Cultivating gratitude
- Random acts of kindness
- Finding your strengths
- Humour
- Finding ways to bounce back
During each session, your child will be working on building their own coping skills toolbox. Parents will be asked to provide a cardboard box or plastic container, the approximate size of a small shoebox, to aid your child to build this toolbox.
Saturdays
April 29th – June 3rd (6 weeks)
Ages 9 – 13 | 10:00 – 11:00 am
$330
Registration closes March 31st, 2023. For all group programs there will be no refunds for any individual missed sessions or drop-outs. Due to the demands of our group programs, a non-refundable $50 deposit will be required to secure your child’s spot in our groups.
REGISTER HERE
“Happiest Hour”
This 6-Week program is designed for those participants who have completed the Happy Hour program. In this program, children will build upon the skills and strategies that they learned previously in Happy Hour to continue gaining greater overall happiness, promote healthy coping skills, and encourages self-compassion.
Saturdays
April 29th – June 3rd (6 weeks)
Ages 7 – 11 | 11:30 – 12:30 am
$330
Registration closes March 31st, 2023. For all group programs there will be no refunds for any individual missed sessions or drop-outs. Due to the demands of our group programs, a non-refundable $50 deposit will be required to secure your child’s spot in our groups.
REGISTER HERE
“Sib Shop”
Brothers and sisters will have the longest-lasting relationship with a sibling who experiences mental/behavioural health concerns, and/or physical/developmental needs and often experience unique concerns and celebrations that their peers may not relate to.
This 6-week peer support group will give children the opportunity to share with others and address the good (and sometimes not-so-good) parts of having a sibling with special needs with others who “get it”, while also celebrating the many contributions they make to the family system.
The aim is to:
- Reduce a sense of isolation that some siblings may experience by meeting others who have familiar backgrounds by promoting informal sharing and friendships among participants
- Make each session fun and enjoyable so your child looks forward to attending and not having them think it is “another thing they have to do” for their sibling
- Intersperse information and encourage discussion about their sibling’s disability along with the implications of their needs through activities that are fun, unique, and interactive
- Provide an opportunity to learn how others handle situations commonly experienced by siblings of a person with special needs that other children would not share (i.e., advocating/standing up for their sibling, answering questions from friends, teachers, and strangers; and at times resentment that may occur with the time and attention their brother or sister requires)
Many brothers or sisters have feelings that are difficult to express: sadness that the sister can’t learn things like others; anger when a sibling’s behaviour prevents the family from doing things that they see other families doing; or pride that comes when their sib learns a new skill. In this group, they will get to share all of this with peers who truly get it!
Please note: Although the therapeutic effects of this group have been identified, this is NOT therapy. The facilitator recognizes and reinforces a strength-based approach and keeps the wellness of all participants in mind. If at all during these sessions it is thought that additional services may benefit your child, the facilitator will connect with the Guardian.
Saturdays
April 29th – June 3rd (6 weeks)
All Ages | 1:00 – 2:00pm
$330
Registration closes March 31st, 2023. For all group programs there will be no refunds for any individual missed sessions or drop-outs. Due to the demands of our group programs, a non-refundable $50 deposit will be required to secure your child’s spot in our groups.
REGISTER HERE
Parry Sound Clinic
No group registrations open at this time