Blogs and Free Resources
Here at PESI, our mission is to provide professionals like you with FREE practical and valuable tools, strategies,
and resources to assist with the great work you do. Find expert tips, helpful worksheets, demonstration videos, CE, news,
and more here. Happy learning!
Ask a Therapist: My Child Is Showing Signs of Anxiety
Discover a 2-step plan to empower anxious kids
Mother, therapist, and children’s book author Christina Furnival, MS, LPCC, provides a two-step plan for when our little ones begin to feel stress, anxiety, and fears about the world around them.
Enhancing Self-Regulation Through Play Therapy
Free trauma-informed play therapy demonstration & worksheets
Many children with big behaviors need help learning how to regulate themselves more quickly or more effectively. PESI author Paris Goodyear-Brown provides a simple sensory-soothing activity that can be particularly helpful for children who struggle to close their eyes and relax.
Excavating Hard Things
Free trauma-informed play therapy intervention
When a child is experiencing the intrusive or avoidance symptoms of PTSD, building a coherent narrative becomes essential to treatment. Paris Goodyear-Brown, MSSW, LCSW, RPT-S, demonstrates an exercise designed to help children verbalize their big emotions.
PESI Celebrates Children’s Book Day!: Top 5 Books for Children’s Social-Emotional Learning
Children’s books can do so much more than entertain young readers! Check out PESI’s top picks for International Children’s Book Day with these five incredible titles.
5 Tips to Prevent & Minimize the Impact of Bullying
Expert advice from therapists, moms, and children's book authors
PESI authors Christina Furnival and Andrea Dorn share their five strategies to help children develop social-emotional skills, recognize unhealthy friendships, and set boundaries with their peers.
Ask a Therapist: I Think I’ve Made My Child a Tattletale
How to empower children to utilize age-appropriate problem solving skills
Mother, therapist, and children’s book author Christina Furnival, MS, LPCC, provides guidance on how to turn a child’s unchecked tattling into autonomous problem-solving.
When the Unthinkable Happens
5 Strategies to Help Children Work Through Tragedy and Traumatic Grief
In the wake of recent tragedies that have directly impacted children, PESI author Andrea Dorn, MSW, LISW-CP, shares strategies for clinicians and caregivers to mindfully approach and work through this difficult topic with children.
The Power of Breath: Teach Children to Breathe on Purpose & Calm Big Emotions
A Free Self-Awareness & Self-Management Activity to Help Practice Mindful Breathing
Kellie Bailey’s newest children’s book, Some Days I Breathe on Purpose, explores the power of breath to help children handle challenging emotions. Get an exclusive sneak peek with worksheets containing breathing and mindfulness exercises for children.
Zoom Fatigue, It’s Real
How to Keep Children and Teens Engaged in Online Therapy
Doing therapy online has become the new normal, but it presents unique challenges many clinicians have not dealt with previously. Laura Dessauer gives us six new strategies to try out with clients as well as tips on how her newest publication, Art Therapy Card Deck for Children and Adolescents, can successfully introduce creativity into online sessions!
8 Ways to Help Children Grow a Mindfulness Practice
And a FREE Breathing Practice Coloring Handout for Kids
Andrea Dorn, MSW, the author of Calm and Peaceful Mindful Me, gives 8 tips and tools to teach mindfulness to kids in a concrete, step-by-step way.