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Wednesday 9am - 1pm Thursday 9am - 1pm Friday 1pm - 5pm Saturday 10am - 2pm

The Mindfulness Studio

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United States
Dothan, AL
The Mindfulness Studio

Dothan-based counselor specializing in play therapy for kids facing behavioral issues, autism, ADHD, anger, defiance, trauma, anxiety, and more.

Support also available for parenting challenges and skill-building.

12/17/2025

Child Development: The Drive to Mastery 🚂🧠

A little boy sits on the floor, lining up his trains.
Quiet. Focused. Fully absorbed.

From the outside, it looks simple.
From the inside, something important is happening ✨

Children are born with a powerful drive to grow, learn, and master their world. They don’t need to be pushed into it. They move toward it naturally—when they feel safe 💛

This is what child development looks like up close.

Before children can manage big emotions, follow rules, or regulate behavior, they first need to experience themselves as capable. They do this through play. Repeating. Testing. Trying again. Sometimes even moving “backward” into younger play before moving forward with confidence.

That’s not regression.
That’s growth doing its job 🌱

In Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT), we protect this process.
The relationship comes first. Safety comes first.
From there, the child’s natural drive to mastery takes over 🧩

When children feel understood and emotionally safe, they don’t need to be forced to change. They begin to organize themselves—building control, confidence, and self-trust one play moment at a time.

That quiet focus you see?
That’s a child becoming themselves 💫

If your child struggles with emotions, behavior, anxiety, or confidence, CCPT gives them the space to grow the way they were designed to.

Because growth always starts with safety 🤍

12/12/2025

Tracking & Empathy: Where Real Change Begins ✨

In the playroom, every movement a child makes has meaning—every glance, every choice, every tiny plastic figure placed in the sand.

A young boy sits across from his male therapist, waiting to see what will happen if he shows the harder parts of himself. Anger. Frustration. Fear. Control.

But instead of correcting him, the therapist tracks what he sees:
“You’re lining those soldiers up just how you want them.”

Then he adds empathy:
“You want things to feel right and in order.”

And the boy begins to soften—and think differently.

Tracking + empathy tells a child:
“Here’s what you’re doing, and here’s what might be driving it.”

When kids start recognizing their own patterns, something important happens:
they begin re-evaluating the choices they make,
how they handle challenges,
and who they want to become in their relationships with others.

This is the core of Child-Centered Play Therapy:
Children express.
The therapist reflects.
The child gains insight into himself,
and that insight fuels better decisions, healthier behavior, and more intentional life choices.

If you’re in Dothan and wondering whether your child might benefit from this kind of support, or you're worried about how your child has been coping recently, you can book a parent consultation online anytime to learn more about play therapy.

12/06/2025

✨ How Play Therapy Builds Confidence and Self-Esteem

Sometimes a child steps into the playroom unsure of themselves.
They hover by the shelf… pick up a toy… put it back… peek at you to see if it’s “okay.” 🤍

Then something shifts.

🧱 A tower gets built a little taller than last week.
🗣️ A doll speaks with a little more courage.
🎭 A problem in their story gets solved in a way they choose.
✨ And their shoulders lift with that quiet spark of “I did that.”

This is how CCPT works.
Not by telling a child who they should be, but by giving them space to discover who they already are. 🌱

When children direct their play, they practice:
• 💡 Making decisions
• 🧩 Solving problems
• 🧘 Handling frustration
• 💬 Expressing big feelings
• 💪 Seeing themselves as capable and strong

Week by week, these moments add up.
Their confidence grows. Their voice grows.
And the child who once hesitated now steps into the room ready to try again. ⭐

If your child needs a little more confidence, play can be the place where it begins—one small victory at a time. 🌿

12/03/2025

Sometimes a child picks up a block, a cup of sand, or a tiny soldier, and something powerful happens. The object becomes a character in their story. A feeling. A memory. A hope. A fear. Their play quietly reveals what words cannot. 🌱

To different children, objects have different meanings. In children’s imaginations sand, clay, water, and the like may symbolize almost anything, a parent, a sibling, a painful experience, fears, food, love and hate, hostility. Objects with more definite structure, such as cars, knives, soldiers, guns, boats, also may symbolize many things to children. The therapist accepts the child’s symbolism exactly as it is and does not in any way try to enforce society’s labels on children’s play.

This is the heart of CCPT. We follow the story the child is already telling. We let them create the world they need in the moment. When they feel safe enough to express themselves freely, healing begins to take shape. 💛

11/30/2025

A playroom in CCPT isn’t just a room full of toys.
It’s a place where a child can finally breathe a little easier.

Everything in the room is there for a reason—not to entertain, but to help a child feel safe enough to show you what’s really going on inside. The right toys help them express frustration without falling apart, tell stories they don’t have words for yet, and feel a sense of control when the rest of life feels confusing.

In Child-Centered Play Therapy, nothing is random.
Every toy invites expression.
Every choice supports confidence.
Every part of the space quietly says to the child, “You’re understood here.”

And when the room is set up with intention, something simple but powerful happens:
kids start to do what they naturally do when they feel safe—
they play, they explore,
and little by little,
they grow.

11/23/2025

“Birds fly, fish swim, children play.”
If your child struggles with emotions, behavior, transitions, or confidence — talking alone might not reach them.
Play does.
CCPT meets them in their language so they can grow in theirs.

11/20/2025

Today I worked with a little girl who marched straight into the playroom with a plan only she understood.
She didn’t ask what we were doing. She didn’t look for instructions.
She grabbed the blocks, set them up in a messy little city, and said,
“I’m the builder today.”

So I followed her lead.

She told the blocks where to go.
She changed her mind five times.
She knocked the whole thing down, then built it again—this time slower.
And while it looked like “just” play, she was actually practicing something big:

Control.
Confidence.
Emotional problem-solving.
A chance to feel capable in her own world.

If I had stepped in with directions—
“Let’s build it this way,”
“Try this,”
“Here’s how you do it”—
I would’ve taken the very thing she came in needing:
a space where her voice mattered more than perfect towers.

By the end, she sat back, smiled at her final creation, and said,
“I figured it out.”

That’s the magic of not directing the play.
Kids grow stronger when they get to lead.
And honestly… they’ve always known the way.
We’re just here to give them the room.

11/17/2025

“Play is the child’s self-therapy.” – Virginia Axline

Kids already know how to work things out in the playroom.
CCPT gives them a space where their ideas, choices, and creativity actually matter.

When they paint, build, boss, nurture, rescue, test things out, or switch between “good guy” and “bad guy,” they’re doing exactly what the brain needs to sort feelings, practice self-control, and find their own path forward.

The magic isn’t in the toys.
It’s in letting them lead.

11/09/2025

Meet Jack 💛
When Jack first came to play therapy, he was struggling with big changes. A new school and a new baby brother at home. His outbursts weren’t really about being bad. They were about feeling lost.

At first, Jack tested limits and searched for safety (Stage 1: Warm-Up). Then came the superhero play, full of battles and taking charge (Stage 2: Expressive). Later, Jack began nurturing his dolls and pretending to care for the baby, showing that healing had begun (Stage 3: Nurturing).

Now he builds tall block towers and beams with pride when they stand tall, a sign he’s in the Mastery Stage. 🌟 Each stage brought him closer to calm, confidence, and connection.

That’s the heart of play therapy. Healing happens through play. 💛

11/06/2025

Children’s questions in play therapy are rarely just questions.
When a child asks, “How much time do we have left?”, it might really mean:
🟢 “I don’t want this to end.”
🟢 “I’m anxious about leaving.”
🟢 “I’m not done with what I need to do.”

In Child-Centered Play Therapy, the goal isn’t to give quick answers but to respond with empathy—acknowledging the emotion behind the question.
Instead of, “Ten minutes,” a therapist might say,
➡️ “It sounds like you’re not ready for playtime to end yet.”

This approach helps children connect their feelings to words and builds self-awareness and emotional regulation.
Every question is a chance to help a child feel more confident, secure, and capable of leading their own growth. 🌱

11/02/2025

In Dothan at The Mindfulness Studio at Grove Park, play therapy offers children the space to revisit unfinished emotional tasks—just like Erikson described in his stages of development.

When a child struggles with trust, control, or connection, the playroom becomes a safe place to reexperience what they missed and master what once felt too big. It’s not about “fixing” behavior—it’s about helping a child grow into who they were always meant to be. 🌳

Because growth doesn’t always start with moving forward—sometimes it begins with going back.

10/28/2025

✨ “Children cannot learn to learn unless we let them play.” — O. Fred Donaldson

In Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT), play isn’t just fun — it’s how children learn who they are. Early thinkers like Piaget, Rogers, and Axline taught us that growth happens when children are free to explore, express, and make sense of their world.

When a child’s natural path to growth has been disrupted by stress, trauma, or big life changes, play becomes the safe space where healing starts again. 🌱

In the playroom, children practice self-actualization — mastering control, finding confidence, and rebuilding trust through imagination. What looks like play is actually the child’s way of becoming whole again. 💛

Address

200 Grove Park Lane Suite 100
Dothan, AL
36305

Opening Hours

Wednesday	9am - 1pm
Thursday	9am - 1pm
Friday	1pm - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 2pm

Website

http://psychologytoday.com/profile/950252, https://headway.co/providers/anthony-coppage, https://dothanmindfulness.com/

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