Wholesome Healing

11/08/2025

This week in our team meeting we focused on gratitude and what that means in our lives.

We all made vision boards about how to see more gratitude. Gratitude is one of the fastest proven ways to elevate mood. A daily gratitude journal can be life changing and helps us bring attention to the beauty in our lives.

In November, we will make an intentional effort to cultivate this in the practice.

11/07/2025

Take a look into a day in the life of Vanessa! The woman behind Wholesome Healing and all it has to offer.

Vanessa is the founder of Wholesome Healing and built it from a one woman show to what it is today. Today we are proud to say we have 5 more clinicians, 3 clinical interns, an office manager, and our beloved therapy dog, Max.

11/02/2025

We don't find big messes scary because it's actually developmentally appropriate for kids to make messes and having the freedom to do that some of the time helps them process the things in life that are messy. Aggressive play is also healthy and needed for development. This doesn't mean you don't have any limits, but it does mean you help them find appropriate ways for aggressive play such as pillow fights or wrestling. Big feelings are also a part of childhood. As play therapists, we understand that allowing these and supporting your child through them will lead to them finding ways of self-regulation that work long-term. We also know that Child Centered Play Therapy is proven to reduce big problems that other forms of therapy have trouble making long-term change on. This is because play is a child's natural language so when you can teach skills in and through the play kids understand so much easier and quicker.

When we see kids who don't have enough time for free play, they often get stressed over time. This is because kids solve their problems naturally through play. They need the time to process changes around them emotionally.

When other people really want kids to talk vs. playing it can actually delay treatment. Sure some kids really benefit from talking, but younger kids respond to treatment much better when it's rooted in play. They don't have to talk to heal. The play becomes their language.

Kids actually learn so much faster through play than teaching skills because of the way their brains are wired. Play has been proved to teach skills 400x faster than traditional methods.

When people see kids as objects to shape they lose sight of the individual needs of the child. All children are different and we understand that treatment needs to be incredibly personalized. Your child is unique and we tailor skills to match their unique needs.

10/30/2025

In the spirit of Halloween, we want to support families in dealing with all the fears coming up with their kids. We’ve put together a basic dos and donts list to get you through scary season!

10/25/2025

Here’s a sneak peak into the life of a play therapist!

10/24/2025

This week we had the honor of diving into Filial Family Therapy training with Mary Ortwein who literally wrote the book on this approach.

Filial family therapy is an approach in which we teach the parents the skills they need to be the primary agent of change with their own child.

What many may not realize is that filial family therapy is the most effective approach for children ages 3-10.

In Mary’s words, this is an approach for parents “who are experiencing hard times with one or more of their children. Perhaps problems have been building up gradually, or perhaps they have seemed to suddenly appear like monsters in a fairy tale, but one day you decide times are too hard and something different needs to happen. “

Parents may be shocked to learn that in just 3 or 4 months “we can change hard times to good times.”

We are excited to bring this to our practice.

10/18/2025

Our worry Monster is a grounding force at Wholesome Healing. Once a year we empty out the worries, read them together, and let them go. We hold them in love, honor the release they represent, and send hope and light to each person who trusted this gentle monster, this symbol of relief, with their truth.

It's a sacred tradition that we hold dear.
A reminder that the work we do is so important. That SO many kids are carrying burdens that are invisible yet so heavy. Fear. Worry. Hardships.
To them all, and to their families, we send a meditation of loving kindness...

"May you all be filled with loving-kindness".
"May you all be happy and safe".
"May you all be healthy in body and mind".
"May you all be free from suffering".

10/17/2025

Fun facts about our beloved Max.

Born in: South Carolina
Was called: Blue boy
DOB: July, 23, 2020 (5 years old)
Things he gets in trouble for: eating food off the counter
Things that make him mad: foxes and raccoons in our yard
Things he gets excited about: catching squirrels (trying to)
Halloween costume: he doesn’t like to dress up - we tried a cow last year
Favorite sports teams: Ravens and Orioles

10/11/2025

In addition to training, research, and supervision to make sure we are clinically the best we can be... We also spend a lot of time, individually and as a team, making sure we are mentally and emotionally healthy. Today, we examined what is working for us and what is not, and set intentions about how to keep improving - because we know that we can't give what we don't have, and you, our clients, deserve the best!

10/09/2025

Working with kids is hard. Working with kids and their parents... even harder.

Filial Family Play Therapy has been shown in multiple studies to be one of the most effective interventions for children under 12.

Training parents and involving them in their child’s play therapy is highly effective, and also has the potential benefit of preventing more severe and costly problems across the lifespan.

If you, or anyone in your practice, works with this age group don't miss this opportunity to learn Filial Family Play Therapy from Mary Ortwein, MS, LMFT, one of the leading experts in the field (trained by Louise Guerney herself!).

Our CE trainings at Wholesome Healing are designed to give you real, practical skills for working with young clients — especially those with trauma, anxiety, or behavioral issues.

These are not boring lectures.
They’re immersive, engaging, and created by experienced clinicians who get what it's like in the room.

✨ Bonus: We make it feel like a retreat. (Yes, really. Food, ambiance, community.)

👉 Come see for yourself. You’ll leave with confidence and CE credits.

➡️ Reserve your seat now: https://www.wholesomehealingforall.com/playtherapyinminiature

Don’t wing it. Kids deserve more. So do you.

10/08/2025

Cheryl Ragland Pace

Still time to sign up!! Email: wholesomehealingforall@gmail.com to reserve your spot today and start a tradition of releasing emotions together!

Ever felt like talking just isn’t enough or that your stuck on how to help your pre-teen or teenager let go of emotions? If so, this is for you!!

10/02/2025

Still time to sign up!! Email: wholesomehealingforall@gmail.com to reserve your spot today and start a tradition of releasing emotions together!

Ever felt like talking just isn’t enough or that your stuck on how to help your pre-teen or teenager let go of emotions? If so, this is for you!!