CHRYSALIS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES AND TRAINING CENTER
Phone: (701) 809-5370
Attachment Treatments are helpful for the following client populations:
• Behavioral acting out/school/home
•Autism spectrum disorders,
• Severely traumatized children
• Abused and neglected children,
• Reactive Attachment Disorders & attachment related problems
• ADHD
• Children in Foster Care
“It is the PLEASURABLE [Joyful] element in this touching relationship that enables the child to feel his body. Through his felt body the child becomes aware of himself…Out of the repeated felt experience of one’s body come the ability to talk, to image, to fantasize, and to think abstractly. A child who has experienced this repeated body contact with an adult who is fully present with him will always have a solid sense of body—a ‘home’ or ‘centering place’ within himself.” Viola Brody “The Dialogue of Touch” (p. 161)
FirstPlay Therapy is a resiliency focused model that builds upon the inner strengths of the children and families that our lives touch. Likewise, practitioners who are trained in FirstPlay Therapy are considered resiliency focused, by they bring their own unique strengths to the work that is what is most valued.
First Play fits within this Zero to Three definition of IMH which is: “The Zero to Three Infant Mental Health Steering Committee defines Infant Mental Health as “The young child’s capacity to experience, regulate and express emotions, form close and secure relationships, and explore the environment and learn. All of these capacities will be best accomplished within the context of the caregiving environment that includes family, community, and cultural expectations for young children. Developing these capacities is synonymous with healthy social and emotional developing.”
“Our survival as a human community may depend as much upon our nurture of love in infancy and childhood as upon the protection of our society from external threats.” Selma Fraiberg
“Prenatal experience needs to be included in the infant mental health classification as we now understand that the emotional and psychology landscape of the pregnant mother can influence the developing fetus.” Zeanah and Zeanah, 2019
Mission Statement of Certified FirstPlay Practitioners
“As Certified FirstPlay Therapy Practioners we are committed to teaching, facilitating, modeling, and supervising respectful and nurturing FirstPlay attachment-based storytelling activities to foster healthier interpersonal relationships for our client families and their infants and children, ultimately impacting the well-being of our communities and the world.”