Our Services
Relationship-based, play-focused support tailored to your family.
Does Your Child…
- Struggle with emotional regulation?
- Find it difficult to connect with others?
- Have frequent meltdowns or shutdowns?
- Seem anxious or overwhelmed?
- Avoid demands or become stuck in rigid patterns?
- Have experienced trauma or developmental challenges?
Interplay Therapy may be the support you’ve been looking for.
What is Interplay Therapy?
Interplay therapy is a relationship-based approach developed by Donna Berry.
Rather than focusing on changing behaviours alone, it helps children feel safe, connected and understood.
Through playful, meaningful interactions, we strengthen the foundations that support emotional regulation, communication, confidence, learning and relationships.
How Interplay Works
Safety
Children first experience consistent feelings of safety.
Connection
Strong relationships that are built through play and shared experiences.
Regulation
As children feel safe, their nervous system begins to regulate.
Growth
Communication, confidence, behaviour and learning naturally improve.
The Journey of Healing
Healing doesn’t happen overnight. It happens through safe relationships.
Every child and every family has their own story. Through Interplay Therapy, we don’t simply work towards changing behaviours. We support children and caregivers through a journey of healing. As safety and connection grow, new experiences become possible, allowing both child and caregiver to create a different future together.
Stage One
Recreate
Before we can move forward, we first need to understand where the journey began.
Many children communicate their experiences through behaviour long before they have the words to explain them. During this stage, children often replay past experiences through their play, relationships and everyday interactions. These behaviours are not random, but meaningful attempts to make sense of what has happened to them.
Caregivers are often carrying their own emotions too. Feelings of guilt, uncertainty, frustration or helplessness can become part of the relationship. Together, we create a space where both child and caregiver feel accepted without judgment, allowing these experiences to be safely shown, shared and understood.
What’s Happening for Your Child
- Expressing emotions through behaviour and play.
- Recreating emotions through behaviour and play.
- Beginning to express emotional safety with another person.
- Learning that their thoughts, feelings and experiences matter.
What this might look like
- Big emotions becoming easier to understand.
- Your child seeking connection instead of pushing others away.
- More moments of calm and curiosity.
- Parents beginning to feel hopeful again.
What’s Happening for You
- Beginning to see your child’s behaviour differently.
- Feeling heard, supported and understood without judgement.
- Exploring your own emotional responses and experiences.
- Developing a deeper understanding of what you child’s behaviour may be communicating.
How We Support You
We create opportunities for your child and family to show and share their experiences through play, connection and relationship. Our role is to help both of you feel safe enough to begin healing together.
Stage Two
Reorganise
As safety grows, new ways of thinking, feeling and relating become possible.
Once children and caregivers begin to feel emotionally safe, the nervous system no longer needs to stay in survival mode as often. This creates space to explore new ways of understanding experiences, expressing emotions and connecting with others.
Children become more flexible in their play, communication and relationships. Caregivers often notice that they begin responding with greater confidence, curiosity and compassion rather than feeling stuck in cycles of stress and overwhelm.
What’s Happening for Your Child
- Feeling safer in relationship.
- Becoming more emotionally regulated.
- Exploring new ways to communicate and solve problems.
- Developing greater flexibility in thinking and play.
What this might look like
- Fewer intense meltdowns.
- Improved communication.
- Increased confidence and independence.
- More joyful interactions at home.
- Everyday routines becoming easier.
What’s Happening for You
- Feeling more confident in understanding your child’s needs.
- Responding with connection rather than reacting from stress.
- Building stronger, more enjoyable relationships with your child.
- Feeling more hopeful and supported.
How We Support You
Through playful, meaningful interactions, we continue strengthening the relationship between child and caregiver. As safety increases, new experiences are integrated, allowing healthier patterns of connection and emotional regulation develop.
Stage Three
Rewrite
Healing creates the opportunity to write a new story together.
When children repeatedly experience relationships that are safe, nurturing and predictable, they begin to develop a new understanding of themselves and the people around them. The old story, shaped by fear, uncertainty or past experiences, no longer has to define the future.
At the same time, caregivers often discover a new relationship with both their child and themselves. Together, families create new patterns built on trusts, connection and hope.
What’s Happening for Your Child
- Feeling secure in relationships.
- Responding to challenges with greater confidence.
- Building resilience and emotional wellbeing.
- Developing a strong sense of belonging and welf-worth.
What this might look like
- A calmer home/school environment.
- Stronger parent-child relationships.
- Increased participation at school, home and in the community.
- Families feeling connected, capable and hopeful for the future.
What’s Happening for You
- Feeling confident in supporting your child’s emotional needs.
- Enjoying a more connected relationship with your child.
- trusting your instincts as a parent or caregiver.
- Seeing your child’s strengths instead of only their struggles.
How We Support You
We continue walking beside your family as new patterns become everyday experiences. Our goal is not simply to help children cope, but to support lasting healing by creating new relational experiences that reshape the story of both child and caregiver.
What Changes Might You See?
Every child’s journey is unique. As safety, connection and regulation grow, families often notice meaningful changes across many areas of everyday life.
Emotional Regulation
Helping children recognise, express and manage big emotions in safe and healthy ways.
Communication
Building connection first, allowing communication and language to develop naturally.
Relationships
Strengthening trust, attachment and meaningful relationships with parents, siblings, educators and peers.
Executive Functioning
Supporting attention, flexibility, planning, problem-solving and emotional regulation.
Confidence
Helping children develop curiosity, resilience and confidence to explore the world around them.
Family Wellbeing
Supporting parents to better understand their child’s behaviour and feel more confident in everyday parenting.
Why Footprints is Different
We ask:
“What is this behaviour communicating?”
When children feel genuinely safe, understood and connected, meaningful and lasting change becomes possible.
At Footprints Early Childhood Intervention, we believe healing and growth happen in relationship — between child, caregiver, and therapist.
Our services are designed to meet children and young people up to 18 years where they are, supporting both their development and the wellbeing of the family around them.
“It is the dance of attachment that creates synchronicity, safety, shared experiences, and deep connection.”
— Donna Berry
We honour every child, teenager, and family as unique.
Whether through therapy, play, or community connection, we
walk beside you — helping each step become a footprint of
growth, healing, and hope.
