Memorial Child & Family Therapy

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas from our MCFT family to yours! 🎅🏽

12/21/2025

These simple, joyful moments of delighting in your kids can seriously change the course of their development. What other silly/ playful games do you play? Share in the comments!

11/05/2025

Grab your spot today for our spring social skills groups! Groups are limited to 6 children per group and each group is 12 weeks. Click the link in the comments below or call today to schedule a

11/02/2025

We often have questions about why kids lie when they know you saw them do something. Or why would my child dig into this lie and not come clean? This perspective can help as we seek to build teaching moments with our kids and help them learn new problem solving skills in the face of big mistakes. Thank you to

10/23/2025

This is the Length of time it takes for the body to reset after a traumatic or stressful event. This can even be a good stressor like doing something thrilling. But parents need to know this so they don’t push kids (or themselves) back to upstairs brain too quickly after a meltdown.

It takes the body time to calm — not just a few deep breaths.

When a child is overwhelmed, their nervous system can take 20–60 minutes to fully settle after a surge of stress hormones. That’s why calm can’t be rushed. They need safety, patience and connection — not pressure to “get over it.”

Understanding this is at the heart of brain-based parenting. Regulation isn’t instant; it’s built through co-regulation and trust.

This also demonstrates why a child needs longer than 5 minutes out of class after an incident.

There is a full range of calming strategy prompts in our toolkit below.

NOW AVAILABLE IN THE RESOURCE STORE - to accompany our series on social media.

The Child Brain Explained: How the Upstairs & Downstairs Brain Shape Behaviour, a Toolkit for Parents & Educators - available for only £3.75 until 3 November 2025

Electronic download available at link in comments ⬇️ or via our Linktree Shop in Bio.

10/22/2025

Are you a mom of a middle schooler? Or are you just trying to navigate keeping your child safe on social media? Here is a great website covering all kinds of topics for “parenting teens and tweens”. Plus, they have a free social media contract template for you if you subscribe to their newsletter! I know staying connected through the middle school years is hard, but continue showing up and nurturing them. Even when they pull away, they are actually needing your support more!

https://parentingteensandtweens.com/10-things-teen-girls-need-from-their-moms/f

It can be tough to maintain a close connection with your daughter during these tough teen years, but these ten tips can help!

10/11/2025

Our MCFT therapists have been growing and learning this week at the National Association for Play Therapy conference in Houston. What an amazing opportunity this was to have some of the leaders in the field come to Houston to train, network, and learn how we can continue to fight for children and families to be more empowered, understood, connected and loved. ❤️🙌🏼

09/12/2025

There have been a lot of difficult news stories lately. I know parents are wanting to process with your children and looking for ways to do so. Here is a book that can be really helpful in getting the conversation started: https://www.amightygirl.com/what-to-do-news-scares-you?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwMxanBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHtUk9hy9IjCTJsToL1MFs4o06He-Myji-4GCdBhDxhKZnDPuiBj8r84QJngu_aem_bEUqaQrnnXoUcfhIvs_8UA

Even adults can feel anxious when they watch the news — but for kids, the bombardment of information about everything from violence to diseases to threats like climate change can feel completely overwhelming... and downright scary. Without perspective, kids don't know how to interpret and process ...

09/10/2025

One of the key aspects of parenting any child is finding ways to draw out the best in them and make them feel seen when they express these character traits. Kids with ADHD need even more of this encouragement and positive connection. I love these questions from Nurture ADHD. Try some today with your kiddos!

08/13/2025

Parents, as you start the new school year with kids, remember to breathe. Here's a simple square breath exercise to practice with your child right before drop off or in the morning as they wake up and eat breakfast. New routines take time but in a few weeks, you will be pros. Breathing helps with all the big emotions as well. Let us know if you need help with all the changes, newness as well as the grief of letting go of the previous year and known routines from that time. 832-615-5508.

Introduce young children to the technique of Box Breathing (Sometimes referred to as Square Breathing) with this fun breathing activity to calm nerves and ea...

08/08/2025

Time is running out to join our Fall Social Skills Groups! We are SO proud of our group curriculum and interventions and we love watching kids grow, heal and learn critical skills for building lifelong healthy relationships.

07/19/2025

So happy for this new credential.

Michelle Collins, MEd, LPC-S, RPT-S, Houston, TX