Children’s Sessions:

Children’s Sessions honors a child’s highest good, deepens their capacity to learn, strengthens their bodies and faculty, and ultimately supports their ability to achieve their life’s purpose.

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The Process

Intake Appointment

In addition to gathering family and health information from the parent/guardian, the first appointment involves games, movements, drawings, and activities that inform next steps, whether that be referrals or ongoing services at Tending the Currents.

Service Plan & Home Program

Parents receive an email detailing observations made in the intake as well as suggestions for next steps. Upon determining if ongoing work together is aligned, parents receive a home program to implement for the duration of the service length.

Ongoing Services

Each child has an individualized plan for ongoing services that blends Craniosacral Therapy with body and reflex integration exercises from Waldorf Extra Lesson.

Sessions can be purchased individually, or, families receive discounts when purchasing in 4, 6, or 8 week arcs.

Review

While I am readily available to my clients for check-ins, questions, and comments, a formal progress report is sent at the end of a program cycle.

Included in Each Session…

Sessions are designed to breathe. They blend movement and stillness. They are challenging in a way that allows a child to feel successful and proud of their accomplishments. They promote the inner capacities within the child to ignite their own healing and development. Through blending holistic practices like Craniosacral and Waldorf Extra Lesson, children are welcomed into a space of growth without judgment.

  • Craniosacral Therapy is a gentle, hands-on practice that listens to the body’s requests and creates space, movement, and rhythm within the child’s body that promotes healing and release. Craniosacral connects to the rhythmic systems, especially the cranio-sacral fluid, and the fascia. Fascia is a spider-web looking network that runs under the skin and runs through the whole body. This connective tissue holds in place muscles, bones, organs, nerve structures, and blood vessels. It also holds onto tension, memory, trauma, pain, and emotions.

    All children have experienced the trauma of birth, and most children have experienced other traumas ranging from accidents to injuries to familial or emotional traumas. These experiences impact the development of the physical body.

    Craniosacral helps children release the movement patterns, tension, and pain that are not serving healthy development in order to make way for new, archetypal, healthy patterns to imprint.

  • The Waldorf Extra Lesson is an individualized, remedial, non-diagnostic movement program developed by Audrey McAllen to support children facing learning, behavioral, and/or sensorimotor challenges. Based on Anthroposophical principles, it uses, painting, drawing, and movement exercises to address issues with primitive reflexes, spatial orientation, body awareness coordination, and reading/writing. These exercises aim to help students overcome developmental barriers to academic success.

  • After an intake or screening, an individualized plan is developed that includes a blend of services.

    Often, sessions have more CST in the beginning and/or around times of development surges, accidents, injuries in order to release old movement patterns and release any tension that might be preventing the correct movement pattern. As sessions continue, CST becomes less and Extra Lesson exercises increase in order to build up the strength, skills, and capacities to move with purpose and ease in life and learning.

Please note that Thursday sessions are available only to children enrolled at the Minnesota Waldorf School and take place on campus.

Saturday sessions are open to the community and take place at my Stillwater office location.

“Emily is absolutely wonderful. She is great with kids. Our son loves going to see her and the work they do really helps him. We would highly recommend her.”

  • M & J . J. 

Let’s Work Together

If you are interested in learning more about sessions for your child, you can either email me at ebarstad@tendingthecurrents.com or fill out the form on the right.