Children's Services
Little Steps
In 1989, the YMCA pioneered a treatment model utilizing expressive art therapy, role playing, and other therapeutic techniques to address the special needs of children (ages 4-17) whose lives have been affected by a parent’s use of drugs or alcohol. Little Steps offers a structured series of expressive group activities through which children learn to identify and change the patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior they have learned in response to their parents’ chemical dependency.
Reasons for Referral
There are a variety of emotional, behavioral, school or family problems that may be indications of juvenile co-dependency. You may want to consider referring a child to us if you observe any of the following signs:
* aggressive behavior
* anger
* chronic anxiety
* depressed mood
* hyperactivity
* low self-esteem
* oppositionalism
* perfectionism
* physical complaints
* separation anxiety
* social withdrawal
Early intervention is crucial to preventing children from developing substance abuse problems of their own down the road.
Our Philosophy
Children experience their world on a feeling level, and express themselves through action. Words are necessary, but certainly not enough for recovery to take place. Their therapy must be supportive, experiential, active, and expressive. Because dependency is the central and defining feature of childhood, they need love, limits, and the understanding commitment of at least one primary caregiver to their recovery.
“Now I know that the drugs cause the fighting and not me. And I also know that even though people take drugs you can still love them.”- James, 7
It is our hope that, through this program, the children will discover in themselves the moral courage to be angry, the wisdom to find purpose in their past, and the creative vision to build meaning in their lives which goes beyond themselves.
“With Little Steps, I can get better, but I don’t have to do it alone.” - Kristina, 10
Program Structure
Little Steps is structured into three groups, each designed to meet the developmental needs of specific age ranges:
* Little Steps (ages 4-8), utilizes expressive art therapy to enable children to identify and express feelings such as anger, sadness, and fear in a constructive manner.
* Stepping Stones (ages 9-11), utilizes a mix of therapeutic games, art activities, and discussion to assist children in dealing with their increased awareness of addiction and its associated dysfunction.
* Steppin’ Out (ages 12-17), employs a combination of discussion and expressive activities to help children understand the disease of addiction and its impact on the lives of early adolescents. It also helps them develop the coping, judgment, and decision-making skills crucial to resiliency and self-reliance – with the goal of preventing future substance abuse issues in their own lives.
Program Goals
Little Steps helps children to:
* understand that chemical dependency is a disease;
* understand that children don’t cause their parents’ drug or alcohol abuse, and they can’t make them stop, but that parents can and do get better, if they get help;
* learn how:
- to trust
- to identify feelings and express those feelings
- to accept appropriate limits
- to speak honestly
- to make decisions
- to be assertive
- to laugh and play
- to make friends
- to believe in their own specialness and in a power greater than themselves
