Holding Space Collaborative, LLC

10/03/2025

09/09/2025

At the beginning of September we said Happy Birthday to Holding Space Collaborative. She’s a threenager! This journey has brought our families two new babies, the ending of other jobs, contracts with educational institutions and mental health facilities, individual clients of all ages, community meet-ups, countless professional speaking engagements, our amazing new OTR, Anna, and more. It is a dream on earth. AND there have also been plenty of fears… and tears- we like honesty 🤪But here we are, still dreaming!

The past three years have been a magical tornado! We are so grateful for the families who continue to trust us with their care and the clinicians who say our name in rooms full of opportunity.

We believe in the expansive power of occupational therapy, and the growth of four clients, when we get out of our our way and work collaboratively.

We also believe the best is yet to come! In a world full of chaos, we choose joy. We choose presence.

With love,
Breanna & Kristen

08/14/2025

We are thrilled to welcome our newest family member to Holding Space Collaborative, Anna DeHondt, OTR/L!

Anna comes to us with a variety of pediatric and family treatment experience. She describes herself as a curious and reflective person, who loves time in nature and meeting clients where they are. She is a Certified Trauma Professional and Certified Proficient DIR Floortime Practitioner. We cannot wait to share her with our community!

07/12/2025

🗓️ Next weekend!

We are SO excited to partner with to offer a family yoga class with a focus on connecting partner poses and breakout activities to learn and practice

🫁 breathing strategies

🧠 affirmations, and

❤️ gratitude.

Come join us!

Sign up at the link below:

https://www.wellnessliving.com/rs/event/happily_ever_yoga?k_class=823398&k_class_tab=62794

07/03/2025

So excited to collaborate with for these July offerings!

🌿 HEY is a boutique infrared yoga and fitness studio in Harper’s Point, Cincinnati, offering everything from high-energy, music-driven flows, sculpt, and Pilates classes to gentle yoga, restorative practices, and specialty sessions like aerial yoga and sound baths..

🌿Through special events like sound baths, kids aerial yoga, grief yoga, and seasonal outdoor sessions, HEY offers wellness experiences that go beyond the mat.

🌿 We are grateful to incorporate our occupational therapy lens to support 3 different offerings this mornh: Coregulation Family Yoga, Role Transition Group for Recent Highschool Graduates, and an Adult Grief and Trauma Learning Workshop.

🌿 Sign up through HEY website at https://happilyeveryoga.com/ or DM us for more details!

📆 CoRegulation Family Yoga: July 20 at 10:30am
📆 Role Transition Group for Recent High School Graduates: July 31 at 4:30pm
📆 Adult Grief and Trauma Learning Workshop: July 25 at 4pm




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06/11/2025

🌿We are excited to share that we are hiring for July and/or August start dates!

🌿Seeking an occupational therapy practitioner to join our growing private practice team.

✉️ Email hello@holdingspacecollab.com or DM us your email and we will share the job description!

🌿Please share this with any personal or professional connections that might be interested!

05/26/2025

We are grateful to partner with Central Clinic and Hearing Speech and Deaf Center of Cincinnati to provide occupational therapy services for this special program!

Thank you, Millstone Fund for featuring our program in your spring 2025 newsletter.

10/25/2024

There isn't only one way of doing things ❤️

When some kids come to me, they don’t know how to break outside of the school model. They aren’t sure what to explore, with the freedom to explore whatever they want. They aren’t sure what to create, given access to loads of art materials and free time and space to do it. They aren’t accustomed to free play, even though children are play-ers by nature.

School doesn’t make a lot of time and space for free thinking, exploring, creating, and playing whatever your brain thinks, and brains will start to rewire themselves for whatever they’re doing for long periods of time.

So some kids will walk into my room and look for a desk to sit down at, or ask me what they’re supposed to do or what I am telling them to do.

Sometimes I’ll scaffold support, by suggesting choices, but always verbalizing and accepting that “no, none of those” is a choice too. Sometimes it’ll be incremental, as we start out sitting at a table and then one day I suggest “hey, you know we could sit on the couch if you want to”, and then another day I observe, “I notice you seem to like swinging on the swing, you know you can do that whenever you want. It’s not a ‘reward’ at the end of our time here.”

And then another day I observe, “I notice you love going upside down. Did you know some people have more ideas in their brain when they go upside down?”

And then another day they self-advocate to me: “I’m going to leave this project and go upside down so my brain gets more ideas,” and I reply, “love it. If you want, you can take the project with you and *do* it upside down! I certainly don’t mind.”

Reaffirming, slowly, over the course of weeks: I trust you. I trust you to listen to your body and brain. Your body and brain are trustworthy. Movement is not bad. Movement gives your brain power. You’re free to explore that power in here, and then I’ll help you wrap it back up and carry it back to class.

Sometimes kids who don’t understand what to do may ask me, “why am I even in here? What is OT?”

And I say, “my job is two things. One is to help kids figure out their brain and body. Everybody’s brain and body have cool ideas, but those ideas come out different ways, so I help kids figure theirs out. And I help schools figure out how to let kids work on those things. Because a lot of schools only know one way to work on things, so they think if you aren’t doing that way, then you aren’t doing it right, but it turns out there’s lots of ways.”

***
[Image description: me going upside down on the bolster swing in my action room and still working on an iPad project. This pose was something I observed my kid doing, but I’ve recreated with my own body. Lying on my back, draped over the swing upside down and backwards. It gives me great proprioceptive sensory input and vestibular sensory input! I am a person with a floof of teal blue hair wearing a Starry Night sweatshirt and yellow jeans held up by a rainbow striped belt. End descriptions.]

09/20/2024

People ask me all the time, “But what am I supposed to do instead? What am I pragmatically supposed to do?” (And that’s fair. I write in the realm of “theory” a lot.)

So here’s an action step.

Pick one of these this week. Memorize just one of them. Keep it in your pocket for the next time that a small person you love is crying.

Bite your tongue. Take all the time you need to pause mindfully and remember that you want to say something different, instead of just telling them to stop.

Then try it out. Try out the one you’ve memorized and practiced.

See how it goes. See how you feel. See how they feel.

[Image description: a stylistic illustration of a ship on the waves, and above it is a raincloud, raining tears into the ocean. The title of it is, “10 Things to Say instead of Stop Crying.” These are the 10 things, written on the waves:
1. It’s ok to be sad
2. This is really hard for you
3. I’m here with you
4. Tell me about it
5. I hear you
6. That was really scary, sad, etc.
7. I will help you work it out
8. I’m listening
9. I hear that you need space. I want to be here for you. I’ll stay close so you can find me when you’re ready.
10. It doesn’t feel fair.
The image was made by happinessishereblog.com and The Gottman Institute. End description.]

09/06/2024

"How was your day at school?" "Fine"
"What did you guys do?" "I dunno"
"Who did you play with?" "Nobody"

Do you have a kid who answers after-school questions like this?

It can be really frustrating, because what you're trying to say is, "I love you and I was thinking about you today!" and maybe even, "I was wondering how your test went" or "I was feeling so empathetic with you about the friendship issues you're going through" or even "I knew you'd be encountering something new, and I just want to hear it went well."

I can all but guarantee you that -- well, with language modified to be child-appropriate -- any of those statements in the previous paragraph will go over better than the questions will. It's okay to question *yourself* instead, figure out what is at the root of your feeling. And then make a statement.

Statements are less demanding. They don't require response of a child, but they invite it if it's wanted.

This isn't a "trick" to fool kids into answering questions they don't want to. This is a genuine discussion about a means of connection. So that means that for some kids -- you'll make an open-ended statement and they'll still say, "Yeah." or "No." or nothing.

That's okay too. The point isn't to try to make your kid someone they're not.

And some kids just need time to mentally unwind from school before they can even begin to process out loud what it is that they did all day. Sometimes they're quiet for hours and then suddenly start talking at bedtime!

It's all okay. This is just a tool in your tool belt. 😊

Credit to Lindsay Braman - Therapist & Psychoeducator for the image!

[Image description: A light yellow background with pink text on it that says Questions Aren't Connections! Then, written, on "banner" shapes in black font, it reads, "Questions can increase anxiety for many kids. Instead, try statements that show you are interested and paying attention." On the left is a column showing some questions, and on the right is how they can turn into statements, with an arrow between them. "How was school?" becomes "You look like you've had a long day." "Did your math test go ok?" becomes "I was thinking about you today during your math test." "Did you find a friend to play with at recess?" becomes "I remember last night you were worried about recess." "How do you feel?" becomes "Your smile is SO big!"

Lindsay Braman's instagram handle, , is also on the image. End description.]