Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital provides a wide range of group therapy services to children and adolescents.
Group therapy is a particularly helpful tool for children to build therapeutic skills such as coping mechanisms and practice them in an environment with others who share similar strengths and challenges.
Each group provided at MWPH will focus on addressing a unique set of needs.
Coping with COVID for Children and Adolescents
This is an interpersonal group for children and adolescents who struggle with adjustment related difficulties as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This group is designed to help group members:
Express thoughts and feelings within a supportive environment
Build coping skills to improve overall function and well-being
Problem solve challenges related to remote learning
Reduce social isolation by building relationships with peers
Promote healthy lifestyle choices
Schedule:
Groups meet on a weekly basis via telepsychology using Zoom
Rolling admission
Groups are created based on age
*For younger children, parents may be required to be available to help supervise or participate in the group
Life can be stressful at times, but it can be especially difficult if you are also grieving the death of a loved one. Going through grief and bereavement are painful and difficult experiences to endure at any time in one’s life, and much more challenging if we feel we are going through it alone. Together, we can help one another through these difficult times.
Therapy Grief Group Sessions will help those who have lost a loved one to:
receive emotional support from peers who are going through a similar experience of grief and loss
have a safe space to grieve openly and without judgment
gain a sense of belonging and know that you are not alone
learn healthy ways to cope with grief
make sense of your life and how to move forward while honoring your loved one
Sessions with Dr. Lindsay Gavin from the Department of Pediatric Psychology/ Neuropsychology, Program for Trauma and Healing:
Weekly Virtual (Zoom) Sessions
Groups organized by age of the child
For children ages 10 years and younger, parents are strongly encouraged to attend the session with their child
This 13-week early intervention group is designed to serve children ages 3 through 5 who exhibit delays in social skills and school readiness skills. The goals of the program are to increase instruction following skills, functional communication skills, tolerance for waiting, and friendship skills. During the 50-minute session, children and their parents participate in a variety of activities either as a whole class or in small groups. Activities will include circle time and free play with embedded teaching opportunities.
Instruction-Following Skills
Responding to their name when called
Completing a single-step instruction
Completing a multi-step instruction
Functional Language Skills
Completing tasks which require assistance by requesting for “help”
Gaining others’ attention by saying “excuse me”
Saying “excuse me” to gain access to play areas
Using words to request access to play materials (ex. “May I play with that?”)
Tolerance Skills
Waiting patiently for requested items/toys/attention
Friendship/Empathy Skills
Saying “thank you”
Greeting peers
Offering toys/materials to peers
Providing help or comfort when others are distressed
Sessions are covered under Medicaid and most private insurances. If you are interested in this group, please contact:
What are social skills groups?
Social skills groups focus on developing social cognition, social communication, and social problem-solving skills to help youth and families reach their goals. Parent involvement is a key part of these groups to support skill development and engagement in groups.
Who should participate in social skills groups?
Groups are offered for children from aged 5 to 21 whose social skills are impacted by neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Age-appropriate speech and core language skills (like vocabulary knowledge) are recommended for our current groups, but we encourage talking with a clinician in our psychology department to find the best fit for your child is you have any concerns about their language level.
When and where do they meet?
Our social skills groups meet for one hour once or twice a week, depending on the group, for up to 16 weeks at a time. Some groups may be longer than others depending on your child’s age and goals.
We currently offer these groups through telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The High School Autism Social (HSAS) group is an interpersonal group for adolescents who struggle with social skills and have difficulty developing friendships and relationships. This group is designed to help group members:
Express thoughts and feelings within a supportive environment
Does your child get “stuck” when things don’t go as usual, or as they had expected? Does insisting that things go a certain way get in the way of friendships and fun time?
Unstuck and On Target is an executive functioning intervention that helps build skills such as seeing the "big picture," emotion regulation and/or "cooling down," and flexibility.
While it is not a social skills group, Unstuck and On Target helps with parts of everyday life like making and keeping friends, getting “unstuck” from things that can bring the day to halt, and reaching goals.
It is often a good fit for children who have Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and/or executive functioning difficulties. The intervention also involves strategies that parents and teachers can use, including a “language of flexibility.”
Ages: 7- to 11-year-olds Necessary Skills: Age-appropriate core language skills (like vocabulary knowledge) Meeting Times: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Unstuck and On Target participants meet in pairs twice weekly for six weeks over telehealth. This schedule may change to once-weekly sessions for a longer period when in-person groups resume.
For more information or to request an appointment:
email: mwphgroups@mwph.org.
Acceptance and Coping Skills for Teens (ACT) group is a psychology for adolescents ages 15 and older with a chronic condition.
The purpose of this group is to allow adolescents to connect with others who have chronic conditions and learn strategies to help function with and manage their conditions
Group Topics include:
Identifying and managing stress.
Relaxation and mindfulness strategies.
Time management and scheduling.
Improving problem solving skills.
Increasing assertiveness and independent functioning.
Making healthy lifestyle changes.
Sessions are run by Dr. Getzoff from the Department of Pediatric Psychology/ Neuropsychology and admission is rolling.
Class Topics for Regulation, Attention, and Feeling Therapy (RAFT) include:
Identifying feelings
Appropriate expression of feelings
Learning to cope with feelings
Mindful breathing and relaxation
Embracing positivity
Sessions with Dr. Getzoff from the Department of Pediatric Psychology/ Neuropsychology:
Rolling admission
Mondays from 3:00-4:00 pm
Remote on Zoom
Space is limited reserve your spot today!
For more information contact
Elizabeth Getzoff, Ph.D.
Licensed Psychologist mwphgroups@mwph.org
Hope to see you there! Click here for a printable flyer!
Flexible Eating Advancement Support Therapy
Does your child become distressed every time you offer something new? Do you give your child the same foods every day because he or she refuses to eat what everyone else is eating? If so, then your child may benefit from Flexible Eating Advancement Support Therapy (FEAST): A group therapy treatment program for extremely picky-eaters.
This group is a 12-week program with weekly hour-long sessions.
Our goal is to make trying new foods rewarding and comfortable and to integrate novel food exposures into each family’s lifestyle.
Group Sessions
Session 1: introductions, menu planning, creating incentive plan
Sessions 2-5: Parents meet with a psychologist to learn about the intervention and plan for making food exposures part of their lifestyle. Oral motor therapists guide children through exposures with novel foods.
Sessions 6-12: Parents observe, participate and guide their children through exposures with novel foods.
All sessions: Children share their successes with the group. Group facilitators review and monitor progress with novel food exposures at home.
For more information, please contact:
Sean Logie, Ph.D.
Psychologist
Phone: 410-578-5131
Email: mwphgroups@mwph.org
