About Healing with Play
Our Play Therapy Practice
Healing with Play offers high quality, trauma-informed assessment and psychotherapy to children, teens and families in Paoli along the Main Line, just outside of Philadelphia. We pride ourselves on providing a warm setting where children and families can receive care that individually tailored to your unique strengths and needs.
Why Play Therapy?
Talk therapy alone isn't effective for children. Thanks to everything we know about child development, we understand that children simply don't have the ability to abstract concepts and cognitively process things the way adults do until they reach the formal operational stage of development between the ages of 11 and 16. Best practice suggests that child therapists integrate nonverbal modes of self-expression into their treatment practice, such as play, art, music, or dance movement to name a few. We offer children opportunities to express themselves through all of the above, but center our practice in play therapy because play is a child's first language.
Learn more about the benefits of play therapy by viewing this video developed by the national Association for Play Therapy.
Our Services
- Individual Therapy
- Family Therapy
- Parenting Support
- Play Therapy
- Infant Massage Instruction
- Diagnostic Assessment
- Evaluation for Immigration Purposes
- Clinical Supervision
- Professional Training & Consultation
Meet the Owner of Healing with Play
Kathryn S. Miller, LCSW, RPT-S, CIMI
Kathy is the owner and founder of Healing with Play, LLC and Blue Sparrow Psychological Associates. She is a Pennsylvania Licensed Clinical Social Worker (License #CW016254), Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor, and Certified Infant Massage Instructor specializing in assessment and psychotherapy with children, teens, and families.
Throughout Kathy's training she's worked in a wide range of clinical settings including outpatient, schools, partial hospitals, and residential treatment facilities. Post licensure, she has had over a decade of clinical experience treating anxiety, depression, and complex trauma in children and teens (ages 18 months to 18 years) in Philadelphia. Kathy has extensive training in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is the most widely researched evidence-based practice known for effectively treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in children and teens. She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is highly effective in treating anxiety and depressive disorders. Kathy integrates play therapy to ensure that treatment is aligned with where your child is at developmentally.
Kathy specializes in performing psychological evaluations for families seeking asylum or other forms of immigration relief and conduct pro-bono evaluations through HealthRight International, Physicians for Human Rights, HIAS-PA, and The Dilley Pro Bono Project and has conducted some of these evaluations at Berks Family Residential Center, York County Prison, and South Texas Family Residential Center.
Kathy has worked in managed care providing training and technical assistance to non-profit behavioral health agencies throughout Philadelphia. Currently, she works at Philadelphia Children's Alliance, a Child Advocacy Center (CAC) that is nationally accredited through the National Children's Alliance. PCA coordinates the investigation of all child sexual abuse cases for Philadelphia. At PCA, Kathy works to partner with behavioral health organizations throughout the city to increase access to trauma-focused treatment available to child survivors of sexual abuse in Philadelphia.
Kathy has the following professional affiliations:
- University of Pennsylvania Center for Public Health Initiatives Asylum Evaluators Consultation Group, Member
- Association for Play Therapy (APT), Member
- International Loving Touch Foundation, Member
- World Association for Infant Mental Health, Member
Assessment and Treatment At Healing with Play
Depression & Anxiety
Depression, fear, and anxiety are some of the most common and uncomfortable emotions that we can experience at some point in our lives, particularly when life gets stressful or overwhelming. Healing with Play can help your child develop strategies for managing symptoms, regaining control, and experiencing joy.
Loss & Trauma
Childhood can be full of transition. Even positive change can create stress on children who thrive on the predictable "sameness" of day-to-day routines. When something disrupts those routines, it can feel threatening to children who do not have the same capacity to cope.
Significant change, loss or trauma is a part of life that we all experience at some point in our lives. Painful events can cause a host of questions and concerns in children and may manifest in sadness, anxiety, or outwardly in sudden behavioral outbursts. Healing with Play can help you overcome these symptoms and guide your child through the process of grief and healing.
Parent-Child Relationship
Research has shown that caregivers are the most effective change agents for their children. Because long-term health outcomes are so closely tied to having a supportive caregiver involved in treatment, you'll be invited to take an active role in your child's sessions to strengthen your parent-child relationship and enhance effective communication.