10/13/2025
Reminder: Child-Led Therapy Grows With the Child!
When most people hear “child-led therapy,” they picture toddlers or preschoolers surrounded by toys, building towers, pretending to cook, or driving cars across the floor. Play is their language, so that’s where therapy happens.
But child-led therapy isn’t just for little kids. It’s a philosophy, one that values a child or teen’s autonomy, interests, and goals. It’s about creating therapy that’s meaningful to them, no matter their age.
At our clinic, child-led therapy with teenage clients looks like this:
-One of our teenage clients is writing a novel. He brings in pages of his story each session, and we read them together. Through his writing, we naturally target verb tense, sentence structure, vocabulary, sequencing, and organization. But more importantly, we’re working on communication that matters to him: storytelling, perspective-taking, and expressing complex ideas.
-Another teen client is preparing for life after high school. Her sessions center around job readiness: practicing introductions and small talk, exploring interview scenarios, writing emails, and identifying her own strengths and needs for future workplaces.
These sessions might not involve toys or games. However, they’re still rooted in the same principles as child-led play for younger kids: following the individual’s lead, honoring their interests, and building skills in authentic, meaningful contexts.
Because no matter the age, connection, and motivation, the best learning happens.
