For Patients, Families and other Caregivers

Within the Center for Resiliency and Wellbeing, our team supports patients and their families by helping them understand the effects of stress and gain skills to heal from adversities and trauma.

Our Wellness Nurses begin by getting to know each family through a Wellness Assessment which explores strengths, stress and wellbeing. The nurse will then provide education and guidance to support healthy growth and resilience.  Our Resiliency Counselors, who are licensed mental health therapists, offer trauma-focused counseling to strengthen children’s emotional, behavioral and physical wellbeing.

When additional care is needed, our team can provide patients and their families with additional resources, either within Phoenix Children’s or in the community, to provide further assessment or treatment. Every step reflects our trauma-informed philosophy — ensuring families feel safe, understood and empowered throughout their care.

Our goal is to partner with children, teens and their families to support them in being able to:

• Learn tools that support nervous system regulation, fostering safety in their nervous system and a sense of agency and empowerment
• Recognize and build upon their existing strengths
• Strengthen their ability to navigate life’s challenges now and into adulthood
• Apply skills to support focus, learning, and success in daily life
• Build and sustain supportive, nurturing relationships
• Foster overall health and wellbeing

If you believe your child or teen is facing ACE-related challenges, talk to your pediatrician or primary care provider about a referral. Once we receive your referral, we’ll collaborate with you and your child to design a care plan that builds on your strengths and fits your family’s needs.

When children face trauma or ongoing stress, their bodies activate a natural “survival” system. While helpful in the moment, repeated stress can impact brain development, learning and health. We help children understand these responses and build skills to return to balance, using compassionate, blame-free care to create a safe space for healing and growth.

Learn more through these videos:

• Childhood Adversity, Trauma and Stress – Human Stress Response (video)
  Understand how the body reacts to stress and why long-term stress can affect overall health.
• Childhood Adversity, Trauma and Stress – Different Types of Stress Responses in Children (video)
  Explore how children may respond to stress and how caregivers can recognize and support them.
   

Our team looks at each child’s unique needs and takes time to learn about their home, school and daily life. We begin with a wellness assessment that explores home, school and community environments, relationships and daily routines. We focus on mental, physical, environmental and social dynamics within your child’s life.

Wellness Assessment

During the assessment, we look at your child’s strengths, needs and protective factors (specific traits that help them deal with traumatic, stressful events). These may include: 

• Coping skills – how your child manages stress and strong emotions
• Community support – positive connections to friends, neighbors, teachers and mentors
• Supportive and nurturing adult relationships – consistent, caring adults in your child’s life
• A sense of meaning and/or purpose – activities, beliefs or goals that provide motivation and hope
• Appropriate developmental expectations – whether expectations match your child or teen’s age, abilities and stage of growth
• Caregiver knowledge and understanding of parenting – awareness of child development and positive discipline strategies
• Parental resilience – a caregiver’s ability to adapt to challenges while maintaining stability and emotional strength

For improved outcomes, we ask that our patients, together with their parent(s) or primary caregiver(s), attend at least four sessions with a wellness nurse. If helpful, a resiliency counselor will also meet with your child or teen to address emotional and behavioral needs.

Science-Backed Approaches

Our team uses methods based on research on childhood trauma. We work together to set short- and long-term goals, introducing practical skills to promote mental, emotional and physical health.

We understand that everyone’s journey is different. Our compassionate team introduces ways to support healing and build strength. Our CRW resiliency counselor provides short-term support, and if needed, we’ll connect families with long-term counseling services.

Our approach includes:

• Breathing exercises that support the body and mind in returning to a more regulated state and settle the nervous system during stressful moments
• Lifestyle practices, like sleep, nutrition and movement, as ways to support emotional and physical wellbeing
• Sensory techniques (touch, sight, sound, smell or movement) to promote regulation and a sense of safety
• Practice listening to the body’s messages (body sensations) to guide, and empower, the ability for self-care and regulation
• Help children learn about feelings so they can notice, understand and share them in ways that feel safe
• Encourage self-kindness practices that nurture self-worth and reduce self-criticism
• Provide confidence-building experiences that strengthen children’s trust in their own abilities
• Acts of kindness that foster connection, empathy and a sense of purpose

Safe and Nurturing Relationships

Attuned, dependable relationships are one of the most powerful tools for recovery and growth. With the support of reliable and nurturing adults, our patients learn to navigate difficult situations and strengthen resiliency.

We address topics such as:  

• Self-regulation – We provide tools and practices that help children, and their parents/ caregivers, recognize and respond to their thoughts, emotions, and body signals in supportive ways.
• Co-regulation – We practice calming and regulation strategies together, so children and caregivers experience safety, connection, and support in the moment. Parents can learn these same principles, helping them stay present and co-regulate with their child during stressful times.
• Parenting support – We partner with parents and caregivers to build on their strengths and offer strategies that support both their wellbeing and their child’s.