A child life specialist has specific training in the development of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. Child life specialists utilize education, preparation, therapeutic play, distraction and emotional support to scaffold increased coping and empower children and families to gain agency and mastery over healthcare and grief experiences. To learn more about the role and value provided by child life specialists please visit:

Read more about the value child life specialists have according to the AAP, American Academy of Pediatrics.

Yes! In collaboration with your pediatric office, arrangements can be made for child life support during visits.

Regarding the hospital, the Ordinary Hope grief and child life specialist would defer to the hospital child life team for the first line of support. If child life support is unavailable at the hospital because the hospital does not have child life specialists or child life is not available after hours, then Ordinary Hope grief and child life services would be available.

During medical play, all play materials will be provided. Real and play medical equipment, toys and other materials support child led, expressive and dramatic play. Depending on assessment and goals, play will be either completely child led, or scaffolding will be provided to support processing, emotions identification, coping, validation, and mastery over experiences. Play is the authentic language of children and through play increased coping can be supported even when children don't have the actual words to express what they are feeling.

Siblings navigating a brother or sister's illness will demonstrate coping in their own unique ways depending on temperament and other factors. It is common for guilt, jealousy, anger or sadness to be visible and expressed outwardly. For other siblings who don't as easily express outwardly, feelings may end up being tucked away with the goal to not burden families. Through family-centered assessment and support, sibling needs can be identified too.

Length of time to receive services depends largely on individual family member coping styles, temperaments and the types of grief or illness support needed. For families initially receiving services, many needs can be met right away and parents can be provided education in how to continue scaffolding coping support for children.

As development changes, and illness or grief shifts, additional support may be needed. Some families start out with weekly support, then shift into monthly and quarterly support.

Others benefit from one visit and present with no further immediate needs. Services will be tailored in an individual and family-centered way in collaboration with parents and caregivers to schedule services according to what works for individual families.

Individual support for children is handled with privacy and confidentiality. Professional and ethical guidelines will be upheld to ensure that whatever is discussed stays private. The legal exception to confidentiality, is anytime something shared is associated with a threat of harm to oneself or others. During initial meetings these guidelines will be discussed. With care in maintaining a family-centered care plan of support, parents and caregivers will always be included either in the individual support being provided or will be debriefed regarding supports provided. Building trust with the whole family is of the utmost importance.

Grief and child life support is tailored to provide emotional and coping support over medical experiences or grief experiences through the lens of child development and emotional safety.

Child life specialist utilize therapeutic play and promote opportunities for decreasing traumas and stressors to support having agency and mastery over experiences.

Child life support promotes coping through education, preparation, distraction, fear reduction, processing experiences and supporting emotions through therapeutic books, expressive projects, activities and play.

Child life specialists do not diagnose mental health conditions and do not provide psychotherapy or treat psychiatric disorders. Through initial and ongoing assessments, child life specialists may identify needs beyond the scope of their practice and collaborate with parents and caregivers to recommend making a referral to a higher level of care as needed.

Ordinary Hope offers individual and family consultations at $120 per 60-minute consultation either in the home or virtually. The fee covers the consultation plus associated preparation, documentation, travel time and materials for therapeutic activities.

Ordinary Hope offers in person grief groups at The Red Farmhouse Bed & Breakfast in Parker, CO in the private and comfortable lower level of the farmhouse at $60 per 60-minute group. The fee covers preparation, documentation, travel time, rental and materials for therapeutic activities.

Yes! Ordinary Hope does offer a sliding fee scale.

Ordinary Hope understands that certain seasons of life bring challenges that include financial hardship. To ensure services are accessible, a limited number of sliding scale spots are available based on financial need. If you would like to be considered for this sliding scale because you are experiencing financial hardship, please request to discuss this during the initial 30-minute complementary call.

In addition:

Sponsorships are sometimes available to cover services completely.

At this time, child life services are not covered by insurance, so Ordinary Hope cannot bill insurance companies directly. If requested, a superbill can be generated monthly that clients may submit to their insurance company for possible reimbursement.

Ordinary Hope provides comfort support to meet fundamental, trauma and grief support needs.

The following items are always needed:

• New handmade pillow cases in fun patterns/colors, new handmade quilts & blankets.

• Weighted stuffed animals.

• Fabric of all kinds and sizes.

• New or used sewing machines in good working order.

• Paints of all kinds (Acrylic, washable, water color).

• Water color paper and canvases for painting.

• Gift cards to Hobby Lobby, Michaels Crafts or Amazon
  

• Monetary Sponsorships are accepted to support families going through financial hardships who are in need of services. (Sponsorships can be for a current family or kept for a future family until needed.)