Services We offer

Social Skills, Drama and Therapy Groups

Groups can help kids connect with each other, feel valued and successful, and know that they’re not alone in their struggles while simultaneously enjoying real, supportive and positive social experiences.

Family Compass Fall 2022 Group Therapy Offerings

Group for Anxious Children

Participants will learn strategies and techniques to manage anxious feelings.

  • 8-9 yo girls
  • Wednesdays @ 4:00
  • Facilitator: Billie Harber, M.Ed., MSW, BCBA, LBA
Social Skills through Drama Therapy

Embodied exploration of thoughts, feelings, and actions. Emotions and relationships are investigated through role and story. Social scenarios are performed, examined, re-written. Group members navigate negotiations through the dramatic creative process of playmaking. Improvisation is practiced to improve flexibility. Green Screen video technology is utilized to offer group review of body language and voice.

  • 7-9 yo mixed gender
  • open to changing age range based on need. Will need large meeting room.
  • Mondays @ 4:45 pm
  • Facilitator: Jarred Sharar, RDT

Social Skills Group

The focus will be on enhancing social cognition through games, activities and role play.

  • 11–12 yo girls
  • Wednesdays @ 5:00
  • Facilitator: Billie Harber, M.Ed., MSW, BCBA, LBA
Social Skills through Drama Therapy

Embodied exploration of thoughts, feelings, and actions. Emotions and relationships are investigated through role and story. Social scenarios are performed, examined, re-written. Group members navigate negotiations through the dramatic creative process of playmaking. Improvisation is practiced to improve flexibility. Green Screen video technology is utilized to offer group review of body language and voice.

  • 10–12 yo mixed gender
  • open to changing age range based on need. Will need large meeting room.
  • Mondays @ 5:45 pm
  • Facilitator: Jarred Sharar, RDT
Hero Kids Social Therapy Group

(Hero Kids or Kids on Bikes); ADHD/ASD; utilizing role playing game, members learn and practice the 5 Cs for successful relationships: Communication, Collaboration, Cooperation, Conflict Management, and Compromise. Explicit instruction mixed with in-vivo practice of skills in a fun, exciting game atmosphere. No experience with TTRPG is necessary. Accommodations for learning differences provided.

  • 4th–6th grade mixed gender
  • open to changing age range based on need. Will need large meeting room.
  • Wednesdays @ 5 pm, during the school year
  • Will run in 8 week spans possibly; requires minimum of 3 members to run
  • Facilitator: Becky O’Neill, LCSW, CAS
Disarm Anxiety, Encourage Mindfulness: Upper Elementary Social Skills Group

Navigating elementary school post-pandemic shutdown can be incredibly anxiety provoking! This group focuses on rebuilding skills to challenge self-defeating beliefs and emotions to allow reflection to improve life goals. This group provides a warm, holistic and compassionate approach for practicing interpersonal skills, new connections, and addressing issues in our lives such as relationships, communication, and mixed emotions to navigate this changing world.

  • 4th-6th grade
  • Wednesdays @ 5:00pm

Dungeons and Dragons Social Therapy Group

Table Top Role Playing Games (RPG) group for boys with ADHD/ASD, social skills needs (D&D); utilizing role playing game, members learn and practice the 5 Cs for successful relationships: Communication, Collaboration, Cooperation, Conflict Management, and Compromise. Explicit instruction mixed with in-vivo practice of skills in a fun, exciting game atmosphere. No experience with D&D is necessary. Accommodations for learning differences provided.

  • 8th–10th grade males
  • ADHD & ASD (Level 1 w/out intellectual disability)
  • Thursdays @ 5 pm during the school year
  • Facilitator: Becky O’Neill, LCSW, CAS
Dungeons and Dragons Social Therapy Group

10 week D&D Social Skills Group (2 hours) utilizing role playing game, members learn and practice the 5 Cs for successful relationships:Communication, Collaboration, Cooperation, Conflict Management, and Compromise. Explicit instruction mixed with in-vivo practice of skills in a fun, exciting game atmosphere. No experience with D&D is necessary. Accommodations for learning differences provided.

  • High school, mixed gender
  • ADHD & ASD (Level 1 w/out intellectual disability) requires minumum of 3 members to run
  • Tuesdays 5–7pm (TBD!)
  • Facilitator: Becky O’Neill, LCSW, CAS
A Space For You to Breathe – Strengthening Self Awareness and Resiliency: Pre Teen/Teen Social Skills Group

Does your child know that you see them as a resilient person? Deep down, under all the silliness, wonder and developmental stressors, there is a resilient person who has strengths and can navigate this world with some targeted support at school, home and community. This group provides a space to challenge self-defeating beliefs and emotions to allow reflection to improve life goals. Being a teenager in 2022 comes with many new obstacles and rewards. This group provides a warm, holistic and compassionate approach for practicing interpersonal skills, new connections, and addressing issues in our lives such as relationships, communication, and mixed emotions to navigate this changing world. It can be so rewarding when we uncover what is holding us back in our lives.

  • 6th-8th grade
  • Wednesdays @ 6:00pm

Social skills and therapy groups

Children naturally learn through interactions with their peers, making group therapy an ideal venue for developing emotional and social skills. Group therapy offers a supportive, goal-oriented environment that works with the strengths of each child to help them address emotional challenges, feel calmer and more confident and in control of their own well-being. We work to empower children in the group through role play, team-building exercises and direct coaching, to strengthen essential emotional and social skills such as social awareness, problem solving, emotional regulation, and conflict resolution.

Drama Therapy

A richly dramatic story is irresistible to children. Via an exciting storyline, children are motivated to play together cooperatively, to invent and follow rules that make play satisfying. Once they fully engage in a scenario, they help determine the outcome by experimenting with various choices. To do this, the players must communicate and negotiate with each other as the characters in the story. This setting enables the therapist and child to shape behavior through direct experience, emphasizing not just what to do in a given situation (behavior), but why (understanding) and how (through practice).

Please note that drama therapy is a complimentary intervention and therefore is not covered by health insurance, though it may qualify as an eligible expense for medical savings accounts.

What you can expect

Once you call or email our patient coordinator with an inquiry about groups, you will be contacted to arrange for an initial, 15-minute telephone call, at no charge,to discern whether and which group(s) may be a good fit for your child.

If there is a potentially appropriate group, you will be invited to come in with your child for an initial interview, so the therapist can ensure there is a good fit for your child’s needs.

If there is a match your child will attend weekly group sessions. If a match is not found right away, then we will keep your child in mind as new groups form.