Sousa & Associates: Specializing in Child Psychotherapy & Play Therapy

09/27/2025

📢 PSA: Online Safety

The internet can be amazing…but it also comes with real risks.

Our kiddos deserve supervision, guidance, and open conversations about what they’re doing online. If you wouldn’t want your kiddo to have a stranger in their bedroom….yet allow open access to the web…allowing for unlimited access to strangers, reels, content, friends…What’s the difference? Youth may not have the self governing skills to establish boundaries, sense into what feels risky and unsafe…because child development actually demands that kids lean into just that!! Without the safe guardrails provided by a tech savvy grown-up…open online access can have devastating consequences. Clinically, helping children impacted by online bullying, exposure to unspeakable violence, experiences of exploitation, grooming, luring and abuse is more frequent than you may know.

As caregivers, staying curious and connected helps children feel both safe and empowered.

💚

Let’s protect their digital world the same way we protect their everyday one.

— Sousa & Associates

09/27/2025

Oh la la..significant therapeutic shifts can look like this…

09/03/2025

“I’m so glad you told me…”

09/02/2025

DBT – but make it doodled! Follow this flowchart to navigate through the skills in the module of

Like it? boy, do I have more for you. This summer, I’ve been quietly dropping dozens of DBT-themed resources on my Patreon. These are the same interactive visuals I’m binding into a full DBT activity book this fall – but Patrons don’t have to wait.

Instead of dry worksheets, these pages reimagine skills through doodle-style diagrams, interactive prompts, and visual storytelling. If you’ve been curious about supporting my work, now’s a great time to hop in and get early access to the entire activity book (plus 250+ other resources I’ve created) for $6/mo. Find me on Patreon

08/22/2025

Therapist check-in:

🤷🏻‍♀️

08/02/2025

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05/22/2025

🧠 People often use the word “regulated” as if it is a synonym for “calm.”

⚖️ Regulated means your energy levels match the task at hand. Dysregulated means your energy levels do not match the task. Executive functioning skills, such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, and self-control, play a significant role in helping individuals regulate their energy levels.

🌟 Helping a child regulate can sometimes mean placing them in an environment where their energy levels match the setting. Other times, it involves helping their body meet its needs so that their energy levels align with the upcoming task. This can include strategies to improve executive functioning skills, such as practicing self-control or using tools to enhance working memory.

Being REGULATED means your energy levels match the task. It does not mean ‘calm’.
The image is by

05/09/2025

Because sometimes you just gotta sing and air guitar on a desk with your mates. 🥰

04/30/2025

Credit:

Correction is part of parenting. But when a child doesn’t feel connected to you, correction can feel like rejection. When connection is built before correction is ever needed, it makes those harder moments easier to navigate.

That’s why connection needs to happen long before correction ever does.

Build it in the calm, everyday moments:
✔️ Ask to join them in their play—before they even invite you.
✔️ Sit beside them while they color and say, “Tell me about this one.”
✔️ Make eye contact and smile when they walk in the room.
✔️ Share a laugh, a snack, or a story—even for just 5 minutes.

These small choices tell your child: “You matter to me—even when nothing’s wrong.”

Then, when something does go wrong:
✔️ Sit down at their level and say, “I’m here to help you through this.”
✔️ Ask, “Can you tell me what happened?”
✔️ Remind them, “You’re not in trouble. You’re learning. I’ll walk with you through it.”

Because when your child feels secure in your presence, they can handle your correction without feeling rejected.

Connection isn’t a reward for good behavior. It’s the foundation that makes growth possible.

04/19/2025

Food just tastes better like this…

04/17/2025

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

-Plato

In the play therapy context, this idea is embraced to emphasize how play reveals a child’s inner world more authentically than verbal interviews or adult-style discussions.

So take a seat-kiddo level of course. Watch and Wonder! 👀

04/17/2025

clever creations…spring art inspo 🌈💐