Stay Mindful Therapy
Child Therapy & Parent Support
Personalized therapy, skill building, and parent support for children ages 4+ in Sacramento, with online support available across California.
UNDERSTAND BIG EMOTIONS
BUILD REAL-LIFE SKILLS
FEEL MORE CONFIDENT
You know your child. And you know when something isn’t working.
Maybe the big emotions are getting bigger. Anxiety is taking over. School or friendships have become a struggle. Or your child seems overwhelmed, shut down, or just not quite like themselves.
You’ve probably already tried to help. You’ve talked, researched, reassured, set boundaries, changed strategies, and wondered what you might be missing.
At Stay Mindful Therapy, we look at the whole picture to understand what’s getting in the way and help your child and family find what actually works.
"It breaks my heart to see my child so sad and uninterested in what they once loved."
As a parent, it can be truly heartbreaking to watch your child struggle with sadness and lose interest in the activities they once enjoyed. The vibrant spark that used to light up their eyes may seem dimmed now, leaving you, as a parent, feeling helpless and concerned for your child’s well-being.
Fortunately, child therapy can provide your children with a safe space to express their emotions and navigate their sadness through guided play and creative exploration.
At Stay Mindful Therapy, we help your child rediscover their interests and find their spark again.
Is your child experiencing:
- Big emotions, meltdowns, or frequent frustration?
- Anxiety, worry, or a brain that just won’t slow down?
- Trouble with focus, organization, motivation, or getting things done?
- School stress, avoidance, or feeling like everything is harder than it should be?
- Friendship struggles, withdrawal, or not quite feeling like themselves?
We help kids understand what’s going on, build skills that actually work for them, and feel more confident navigating everyday life.
child therapy & parent support in sacramento
What Is Child Therapy & Parent Support?
What is Child Therapy?
Child therapy helps kids understand what they’re experiencing, build skills for the things that feel hard, and feel more confident navigating everyday life.
At Stay Mindful Therapy, we start by understanding the whole child. Before meeting with your child, we begin with an extended parent intake to learn about their strengths, challenges, relationships, school experience, family environment, what you’ve already tried, and what may be getting in the way.
From there, we create a personalized Care Map based on what your child and family actually need. Therapy may be part of that plan, along with parent support, individual skill building, neurofeedback, or other supports.
When we do work directly with your child, therapy is designed around how they naturally connect and communicate. Depending on their age and needs, sessions may include play, art, movement, storytelling, skill building, and traditional talk therapy.
We support children experiencing anxiety, ADHD, big emotions, school and friendship struggles, grief, trauma, and life changes, while keeping an eye on the bigger picture around them.
What is Parent Support?
At Stay Mindful Therapy, child therapy starts with the parents. Before we meet with your child, we meet with you for an extended parent intake to understand the whole picture: what you’re seeing, what you’ve already tried, what’s happening at home and school, and what your family needs most.
We also make space for what parenting brings up in you. Sometimes a child’s struggles can trigger fear about their future, stress and overwhelm, uncertainty about whether you’re doing the right thing, or experiences from your own childhood that influence how you respond. Those pieces matter too.
Parent support may include understanding your child’s behavior and nervous system, strengthening communication, managing your own stress and reactions, working through parenting fears, creating more supportive routines, or exploring patterns that may be affecting your family.
You know your child best. We bring our clinical perspective, you bring your knowledge of your child and family, and together we strengthen the environment around your child so the work they’re doing has support beyond the therapy room.
How are the two linked?
Children don’t grow and change in isolation. What happens at home, at school, in relationships, and within the family all shapes how a child experiences the world.
That’s why we work with both your child and the environment around them. While your child builds understanding, skills, and confidence, parent support helps you understand what’s happening beneath their behavior, respond in ways that support their growth, and notice the patterns, stress, fears, or past experiences that may be showing up in parenting.
Sometimes the most meaningful change happens in the therapy room. Sometimes it happens when something shifts at home. Most often, it’s both.
By working together, we can create more consistency around your child and help the progress they make carry into everyday life.
When we understand the whole picture, we can help your child and family find what actually works.
child therapy & parent support in sacramento
How Child Therapy & Parent Support Can Help
Here Are Some Areas Where Child Therapy Can Support Your Child:
Child Therapy for Anxiety & Worry
Anxiety can look different in every child. You might notice constant “what if” questions, reassurance seeking, trouble sleeping, stomachaches, perfectionism, avoidance, or big reactions when something feels uncertain.
We help children understand what’s happening in their minds and bodies, build practical skills for managing worry, and gradually feel more confident facing the things that make them anxious. Depending on your child, therapy may include play, art, movement, mindfulness, and other developmentally appropriate approaches, with parent support to help those skills carry into everyday life.
Child Therapy for ADHD & Executive Functioning
ADHD can affect much more than attention. Your child may struggle to get started, stay organized, remember directions, manage time, regulate emotions, shift between tasks, or keep up at school even when they’re bright and capable.
Over time, those struggles can take a toll on self-esteem. Kids may start to believe they’re lazy, difficult, “bad at school,” or simply not as capable as everyone else. Frequent correction, frustration, and feeling like they’re always getting something wrong can lead to anxiety, avoidance, perfectionism, or giving up before they even begin.
We help children understand how their brain works, recognize their strengths, and build practical skills that work with them instead of against them. Support may include therapy, individualized skill building, parent support, and strategies for executive functioning and emotional regulation, while helping your child rebuild confidence in who they are and what they’re capable of.
Child Therapy for Big Emotions & Emotional Regulation
Some kids feel everything big. Frustration can become a meltdown, disappointment can feel unbearable, and small changes or limits can quickly turn into yelling, tears, shutting down, or losing control. Your child may understand what happened afterward but still struggle to slow things down in the moment.
Big emotions aren’t simply “bad behavior.” They can be connected to anxiety, ADHD, sensory needs, stress, developmental differences, past experiences, or a nervous system that becomes overwhelmed easily. Understanding what’s underneath the behavior helps us figure out what your child actually needs.
We help children notice what’s happening in their minds and bodies, understand their emotions, and build skills for managing frustration, flexibility, and overwhelm. We also work with parents to identify patterns, reduce unnecessary stressors, and respond in ways that help your child build regulation over time.
The goal isn’t a child who never gets upset. It’s a child who understands themselves better, has more tools when things get hard, and knows they can move through big feelings without being defined by them.
Child Therapy for School Stress & School Avoidance
When school becomes a source of stress, it can affect the whole family. Your child may complain of stomachaches or headaches, struggle to get out the door, shut down over homework, become increasingly anxious on Sunday nights, or refuse school altogether. Other kids make it through the day but come home exhausted, irritable, or completely overwhelmed from holding it together.
School struggles aren’t always about motivation. Anxiety, ADHD, learning differences, perfectionism, sensory needs, social challenges, bullying, academic pressure, or feeling unsuccessful day after day can all make school feel harder than it should.
We work to understand why school has become difficult before deciding what needs to change. Support may include helping your child manage anxiety and overwhelm, build executive functioning and coping skills, strengthen confidence, and find more workable ways to approach school.
We also work closely with parents to understand patterns, reduce power struggles, and support changes outside the therapy room. When appropriate, we can help families think through how to communicate with the school and what additional educational or community supports may be worth exploring.
The goal isn’t simply getting your child through the school doors. It’s understanding what’s making school so hard and helping them feel more capable, supported, and successful once they’re there.
Child Therapy for Friendship & Social Challenges
Friendships can be one of the best parts of childhood and one of the hardest. Your child may feel left out, struggle to find their people, worry constantly about what others think, get caught in friendship drama, or have a hard time understanding social situations and knowing what to do next.
For some children, social challenges are connected to anxiety, ADHD, neurodivergence, impulsivity, difficulty reading social cues, or simply feeling different from their peers. Others have the social skills but lose access to them when they feel nervous, rejected, overwhelmed, or unsure of themselves. Over time, repeated friendship struggles can affect self-esteem and leave kids wondering whether something is wrong with them.
We help children understand their own social world, build confidence, practice communication and relationship skills, navigate conflict and boundaries, and learn how to handle rejection or disappointment without losing themselves in the process. When helpful, we also work with parents to understand friendship patterns and support their child without trying to manage every social interaction for them.
The goal isn’t to teach your child how to fit in. It’s to help them build the skills and confidence to form healthy relationships while feeling comfortable being themselves.
Child Therapy for Depression & Low Mood
Depression in children doesn’t always look like sadness. Your child may seem more irritable, tired, withdrawn, or easily frustrated. They may stop enjoying things they once loved, pull away from friends and family, struggle with motivation, or start saying things like “I don’t care,” “I’m not good at anything,” or “What’s the point?”
Sometimes low mood develops after a loss, friendship change, family transition, stressful experience, or prolonged struggle at school. Other times, there isn’t an obvious reason. Anxiety, ADHD, neurodivergence, loneliness, chronic stress, and low self-esteem can also contribute to a child feeling disconnected from themselves and the world around them.
We help children understand what they’re experiencing, find ways to express what can be difficult to put into words, and reconnect with the people, activities, strengths, and parts of themselves that matter to them. Therapy may include creative approaches, skill building, emotional regulation, and developmentally appropriate ways to explore thoughts, feelings, and patterns.
We also work with parents to understand changes in mood and behavior, strengthen connection at home, and create an environment that supports their child’s emotional well-being.
The goal isn’t to make your child “cheer up.” It’s to understand what’s underneath the change and help them feel more connected, capable, and like themselves again.
Child Therapy for Trauma & PTSD
Trauma can change the way a child experiences themselves, other people, and the world around them. After something frightening, painful, or overwhelming, your child may become more anxious, irritable, watchful, clingy, withdrawn, or easily overwhelmed. You might notice nightmares, avoidance, sudden fears, big reactions, difficulty concentrating, changes at school, or behaviors that seem to come out of nowhere.
Not every child who experiences something difficult develops PTSD, and trauma isn’t defined only by what happened. What matters is how your child experienced it and what their mind and body are still carrying afterward.
We help children process difficult experiences in ways that feel safe and developmentally appropriate. Depending on your child’s age and needs, therapy may include play, art, movement, nervous system regulation, trauma-focused approaches, and other ways of working that don’t require your child to explain everything perfectly with words.
We also work with parents. A child’s trauma can affect the entire family, and it can bring up fear, guilt, protectiveness, anger, or experiences from your own past. Parent support can help you understand your child’s responses, manage your own reactions, and create more safety and predictability around them as they heal.
The goal isn’t to erase what happened. It’s to help the experience have less power over your child’s present, so they can feel safer, more connected, and freer to be a kid again.
Child Therapy for Grief & Loss
Grief can be especially confusing for children. They may move from sadness to play and back again within minutes, ask the same questions repeatedly, become more clingy or anxious, or seem unaffected until feelings show up weeks or months later. You may notice changes in sleep, behavior, school, friendships, or fears about losing someone else.
And loss isn’t limited to death. Children can grieve a divorce or separation, a move, the loss of a friendship, changes within their family, the death of a pet, or any experience that changes the world as they knew it.
Children also grieve differently as they grow. A loss they seemed to understand at six may bring new questions and emotions at nine or twelve as their understanding of the experience changes.
We give children developmentally appropriate ways to make sense of their loss, express what they’re carrying, stay connected to important memories, and build skills for the emotions that come with grief. Depending on your child, this may include play, art, storytelling, movement, and traditional talk therapy.
We also support parents in navigating their child’s grief while making space for their own. When a family is grieving together, it can be difficult to know what to say, how much to share, or how to help your child when you’re hurting too.
The goal isn’t to help your child “move on.” It’s to help them learn that grief can be carried, talked about, and integrated into their life while still making room for connection, joy, and everything that comes next.
Child Therapy for Neurodivergent Children
Neurodivergent children experience and interact with the world in their own ways. ADHD, autism, sensory differences, learning differences, and other variations in how a child’s brain works can affect emotions, relationships, school, communication, executive functioning, and everyday life.
Often, the hardest part isn’t the difference itself. It’s what happens when a child is repeatedly expected to function in ways that don’t fit their brain. They may work incredibly hard to keep up, mask their needs, become overwhelmed by seemingly small demands, or hear so often what they’re doing “wrong” that it begins to shape how they see themselves.
We start by getting curious about your child rather than trying to make them fit a mold. We look at their strengths, challenges, sensory and emotional needs, environment, relationships, and what may be underneath behaviors that others find difficult. From there, we help your child build skills that support everyday life while protecting their sense of identity and self-worth.
Parent support is an important part of this work. We help you better understand how your child experiences the world, recognize what may be driving difficult moments, adjust expectations or environments when needed, and find strategies that work for your actual child, not the child a parenting book says you should have.
The goal isn’t to make a neurodivergent child appear more neurotypical. It’s to help them understand themselves, develop skills where they need support, advocate for what they need, and grow up knowing that different is beautiful.
Child Therapy for Life Changes & Family Transitions
Even positive changes can feel big to a child. Moving, changing schools, welcoming a new sibling, divorce or separation, blending families, changes in caregiving, or other shifts at home can leave kids feeling uncertain about where they fit and what comes next.
Children don’t always have the words to connect what they’re feeling with what has changed. Instead, you might notice more anxiety, irritability, clinginess, withdrawal, trouble sleeping, big emotions, changes at school, or behaviors that seem to come out of nowhere.
We help children make sense of what’s changing, express feelings they may not know how to explain, and build a sense of stability and confidence as they adjust. Therapy may include play, art, storytelling, skill building, and developmentally appropriate conversations based on your child’s age and needs.
Because transitions affect the whole family, we also work with parents. We can help you think through communication, routines, boundaries, changing family roles, and your own emotions around the transition so you can provide steadiness even when things feel uncertain for you too.
The goal isn’t to make change easy. It’s to help your child feel secure, connected, and supported while learning that they can move through change and find their footing again.
stay mindful therapy Sacramento
Different Kids Need Different Kinds of Support
We bring together different kinds of support based on what your child and family actually need.
Visit us for therapy in Sacramento or attend a session online anywhere in California.
Play & Creative Therapy
Through play, art, and sand tray, children have developmentally appropriate ways to express themselves, explore what they’re experiencing, and build confidence without always needing to find the right words.
Experiential & Evidence-Based Therapy
Depending on your child’s needs, therapy may include approaches such as Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), CBT, mindfulness, somatic work, and other strategies that help them process experiences, understand themselves, and move forward.
Skill Building & Groups
Some kids need opportunities to practice, not just process. Individual and family skill-building sessions and groups can support emotional regulation, executive functioning, communication, coping, friendships, and everyday challenges in practical, real-world ways.
Parent Support & Neurofeedback
Support can extend beyond your child’s individual sessions. Parent support helps strengthen the environment around your child, while neurofeedback offers a gentle, noninvasive option that may be used on its own or alongside other services in your child’s Care Map.
Ready to find what works for your child?
Ready to get started? Schedule a free consult call and let’s find the right support for your healing journey with Stay Mindful Therapy in Sacramento.
About Us
Why Work With
Stay Mindful Therapy
Good care starts with seeing the whole person, not just the problem.
At Stay Mindful Therapy, we’re curious by nature. We listen closely, ask thoughtful questions, and look at the whole picture to understand what’s really going on.
With more than 15 years of experience, our team supports children, teens, adults, and families with thoughtful, personalized care. We believe therapy works best when you feel understood, involved, and genuinely connected to the people supporting you.
We work together, bringing different perspectives and approaches to help you find what fits. Because you don’t need another one-size-fits-all answer. You need people who will pay attention, think creatively, and help you find what actually works.
At Stay Mindful Therapy,
our client relationships are based on:
Integrity
We believe in being honest, transparent, and thoughtful about your care. If something isn’t working, we talk about it and find another way forward.
Compassion
We meet you with curiosity, warmth, and respect. You and your child deserve to feel understood, never judged or reduced to a diagnosis.
Growth
We believe change is possible, and there’s more than one way to get there. We stay curious, keep learning, and adapt your care as you grow.
Our Approach
How Child Therapy & Parent Support Works
We start by understanding the whole picture, then build support around what your child and family actually need.
We Start With Parents
Before meeting with your child, we begin with an extended parent intake. We’ll talk about your child’s strengths and challenges, what you’re seeing at home and school, what you’ve already tried, your family environment, and what parenting this particular child is bringing up for you.
We Build a Personalized Care Map
From there, we create a plan based on what your child and family actually need. That may include child therapy, parent support, individual skill building, neurofeedback, groups, or a combination of services. When we work directly with your child, we take time to build trust and choose approaches that fit how they naturally connect, communicate, and learn.
We Grow and Adjust Together
We stay connected with you throughout the process, paying attention to what’s changing both inside and outside the therapy room. As your child grows and their needs change, we adjust their Care Map so the support continues to fit.
Stay Mindful Therapy Sacramento
Frequently Asked Questions About Child Therapy & Parent Support
How do I know what kind of support my child needs?
You don’t have to figure that out before reaching out. We start with an extended parent intake to understand what’s happening at home, school, and in your child’s relationships, along with what you’ve already tried. From there, we develop a Care Map based on what may be most helpful for your child and family.
Why do you meet with parents before seeing my child?
You know your child better than anyone, and understanding the environment around them gives us important information before we begin. Starting with parents helps us learn about your child’s history, strengths, challenges, family dynamics, school experience, and what parenting is bringing up for you. It also allows us to identify changes or support that may help outside the therapy room.
What will my child’s sessions look like?
It depends on your child. Sessions may include play, art, sand tray, movement, conversation, skill building, or other therapeutic approaches based on their age, needs, and how they naturally communicate and connect. We don’t expect every child to engage in therapy the same way.
Will I be involved in my child’s therapy?
Yes. Parent involvement is an important part of our approach. How that looks will depend on your child’s age, needs, and treatment. We balance keeping you meaningfully involved with giving your child an appropriate level of privacy and a safe therapeutic relationship of their own.
How long will my child need therapy?
There isn’t one timeline that fits every child. Some children benefit from focused support around a specific challenge, while others need care over a longer period of time. We regularly look at what’s working, what’s changing, and whether your child’s Care Map still fits rather than assuming therapy needs to continue indefinitely.
child therapy & parent support in sacramento
What Change Can Look Like
When children and parents have the right support, small shifts can add up to meaningful change at home, at school, and in everyday life.
Improved Emotional Regulation
Your child begins to recognize what’s happening before emotions completely take over. They may recover from big feelings more easily, tolerate frustration better, and develop more ways to handle overwhelm.
Increased Confidence & Self-Esteem
Your child begins to understand themselves differently, recognize their strengths, and feel more capable when things are hard. Instead of automatically thinking “I can’t,” they begin to trust themselves and what they can do.
Better Communication
Your child becomes better able to express what they need, put feelings into words, communicate boundaries, and work through difficult moments with the people around them.
Stronger Coping & Problem-Solving Skills
Instead of relying on the same reactions when something goes wrong, your child develops more tools for managing worry, disappointment, conflict, transitions, and everyday stress.
Healthier Relationships
As children better understand themselves and others, they can build skills for navigating friendships, family relationships, conflict, connection, and repair.
Greater Sense of Belonging
Through therapeutic support, your child can learn to connect with others and feel accepted. This sense of community gives them a greater feeling of belonging and reduces feelings of isolation.
Stronger Sense of Self & Belonging
Your child feels more comfortable being who they are, more connected to the people around them, and less defined by the things that have been difficult.
Stay Mindful Therapy | Sacramento
How To Get Started
Getting started is simple. Book a free 15-minute consult call to ask questions and figure out the best place to start. If you already know you’re ready, you can skip the consult and book your intake directly online.
We offer in-person care in Sacramento and online therapy throughout California.
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Not Sure Where to Start?
We’ll help you figure out the next step.
Ready to Get Started?
Skip the consult and schedule your intake directly online.
2620 J St Floor 1, Sacramento, CA 95816