Helping preteens and their parents build lifelong skills for managing strong emotions.
Our PEACE group (Parent Emotions And Child Emotions) helps preteens build practical skills for managing intense emotions, while giving parents effective, evidence-based strategies to better understand and respond to their child.
Led by child psychologists, these groups integrate strategies from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) to teach children coping skills so they can feel more in control of their emotions. Concurrently, parents learn practical tools to improve communication, strengthen relationships, support healthy emotional regulation, and foster a calmer home environment.
Parents and children meet separately in a safe and supportive setting. Parents gain insight into both their child's emotional experiences and their own patterns of responding, while learning skills that reinforce the concepts taught to their children.
Appropriate for Families with Children Who:
- Have trouble managing their emotions, with frequent meltdowns or tantrums
- Struggle with respecting boundaries or accepting the word 'no'
- Suffer from anxiety, depression, or ADHD
Preteens Will Learn How to:
- Manage overwhelming emotions like social anxiety, sadness, excitement, and impulsivity
- Build confidence and self-awareness through fun, age-appropriate therapeutic activities
- Become more tolerant rather than reactive to emotions and triggering situations
- Normalize their challenges by connecting with peers who struggle with similar experiences
- Improve relationships with friends and families
- Develop a toolbox of skills that can be used throughout their life
Parents Will Learn How to:
- Respond more effectively to their child’s intense emotions
- Better understand the emotional and developmental factors driving their child’s
reactions - Increase compassion toward their child
- Improve relationships with their child and enhance peacefulness within the home
- Develop skills to manage their own emotional responses
- Apply mindfulness and distress tolerance techniques (for themselves and their
child) - Implement practical behavioral modification techniques
Details:
PRETEEN GROUP:
Location: Preteens meet in-person in our Northern Virginia office.
Date/Time: Thursdays, 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Led by Tolu Ojoyei, PsyD. Next session begins on September 24th.
PARENT GROUP:
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Date/Time: Wednesdays, 12:00 - 1:00 pm. Led by Heather Bernstein, PsyD. Next session begins on September 23rd.
Flexible Participation Options: Families are welcome to participate together or independently. Preteens may enroll in the in-person child group without a parent participating in the virtual parent group, and parents may join the virtual parent group even if their preteen is not enrolled in the in-person sessions.
Length of Group: 7 weeks, 60-minute sessions
*If you are interested but this time does not work for you, please reach out so we can let you know about future sessions.
Assessment: An 15 minute assessment with a Ross Center clinician is required to ensure that this is the proper group for your child.
If you are interested in this group, please complete the questionnaire below. We will contact you to follow-up after receiving your responses.
For more information, please call 703-687-6610 or email vainfo@rosscenter.com
