*in St. Louis, Missouri*
Play Therapy

Your child seems so anxious, angry, and overwhelmed. Your pediatrician told you to start play therapy in St. Louis. So here you are, trying to understand how play therapy is going to help your hurting child.
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Our therapists care about good outcomes, and get them consistently!

91% of our clients see improvements, with 82% achieving their goals within 12 sessions!

You’re exhausted, you’re overwhelmed, and you don’t know how to help your child anymore.

They have such huge outbursts. They keep getting in trouble. You’re tired of always being the bad guy, but you know you need to tell your child it’s actually not okay to hit, punch, kick, or break things, no matter how you’re feeling.

Your kid has trouble telling you what’s going on, or why they’re feeling the way the feel, and you are lost. You don’t know what to do. You just know that they can’t keep reacting like this.

Play therapy interventions can help your child process their big emotions.

But you might be thinking “Wait! Is playing with my child really going to fix all of this? I play with my kid all the time and it is NOT helping!”

And then you think: “Will talking to my kid with traditional talk therapy work? I try to talk to them all the time and that’s not really helping, either!”

The good news is that play when paired with evidence-based, outcomes-focused therapy, delivered by therapists who specialize in working with angry, anxious, and overwhelmed kids, can be incredibly powerful!

At Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, we provide evidence-based, outcomes-focused therapy

Here, we start with getting to know your kid and processing those emotions through play. Then we develop a targeted plan with real skills so that those big feelings can be processed and dealt with, and we figure out what is and is not working for your unique child and create a plan to build the skills they need.

But, how can we know if our play therapy informed approach is actually helping?

Each and every week we track the progress your child is making using Feedback Informed Treatment. We get your scores during our weekly parent check in, and we tailor our approach to what your child really needs.

We’re keeping the data on every session and with every child to ensure we make progress and change things up until everyone sees real change. And if for some reason our interventions aren’t working (that’s rare), we’ll find someone who is a better fit and refer you out! We care about progress, not keeping you here when things aren’t really working.

When you leave your child’s weekly appointment, you’ll know what the focus is here at therapy, and you’ll have resources to help at home with you.

You’ll know exactly what strategies we are working on, know what to reward at home, and you’ll be left feeling really clear on what you and your family are getting out of the child therapy process.

Play is a hugely important skill for kids. Play is how they communicate. All of our therapists integrate play therapy informed techniques into their work with kids and teens, while we build on those techniques with targeted interventions so that your child actually has the skills they need to manage their anxiety, anger, and overwhelm.

The Process:

1.

We use play therapy techniques to build up a relationship and rapport with your child.
2.

We dig in to what’s going on underneath the surface.
3.

We help your child recognize what’s going on with their emotions, their behaviors, and their reactions.
4.

We build a plan, together, to target what’s going on and teach you and your child the skills to manage their overwhelming thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Frequently Asked Questions for Play Therapy in St. Louis

Play therapy is a powerful tool for children struggling with anxiety, behavioral challenges, trauma, depression, and relationship difficulties (National Institute of Health). At Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, we specialize in working with anxious, angry, and overwhelmed kids. Many of the kids we see look angry on the outside, but inside are filled with anxiety and stress. That anxiety comes out as temper tantrums, defiance, and big meltdowns.

Our expert therapists take the time to dig into the root of your child’s anger, using play therapy interventions alongside cognitive-behavioral and family-focused interventions to create real, lasting change. We don’t just help kids feel better in the moment—we help them (and you) build the skills to see real improvement at home, at school, and in their relationships.
Research shows that play therapy is most effective for children ages 3-12, as play is their natural way of processing emotions. At Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, we go beyond traditional play therapy—we specialize in anxiety and anxiety-driven anger, using tailored interventions to help children of all ages. For older kids and teens, we integrate play therapy techniques alongside cognitive-behavioral strategies to ensure therapy is both engaging and effective.
A 45-minute play therapy informed session with our specialized therapists costs $205. Our approach isn’t just about play—it’s about real progress. We use evidence-based interventions to get to the root of your child’s struggles, helping them build meaningful skills for emotional regulation, resilience, and self-expression.
Yes, play therapy is often covered by insurance. While we are an out-of-network provider, we make the process easier by providing superbills, which you can submit to your insurance company for potential reimbursement. Many families find that they can receive partial coverage, or that part of our session fee can apply to their deductible, depending on their out-of-network benefits. You can read more over on our fees and insurance page.
While we love incorporating play into our sessions with kids ages 3 on up, we also know that kids with anxiety and anxiety-driven anger need to build skills to manage their overwhelming emotions. We also know that you, as the parent, are desperate for things to improve. So, what’s the biggest challenge with play therapy? If you’re not tracking outcomes in some kind of capacity, how do you know it’s working?

That’s why we take a data-driven, results-oriented approach. Every session integrates Feedback-Informed Treatment (FIT) so we can measure progress on our outcomes, tailor our interventions, and ensure your child is truly improving. Our therapists don’t just "hope" therapy is working, or tell you that we “feel” like your child is improving—we track real results, with you and with your child, to ensure that progress is measurable, and that you can feel the difference.