A Littleton Therapist Who Gets Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors

Child Therapy and Parent Support

You've noticed something is different with your child, and as their parent, you felt it before you could name it.

The annoying, but expected age-appropriate temper tantrums are now epic episodes that are exhausting and worthy of an Academy Award. What was once quirky avoidance or preferences now has the entire family walking on eggshells and planning around paralyzing fear, anxiety, and worry. Your child, whom you used to wonder if they had an off button, has gone unusually silent, withdrawn, and invisible. You have moments that everything is going along just fine, and then out of nowhere, your child is acting out in ways that leave you standing in the kitchen thinking, what just happened?

You're paying close attention, doing everything you know how to do, and still wondering: is this more than a phase?

Parenting is the most important job in the world, and also the one that comes with the least amount of instructions. Feeling unsure doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. It usually means you care deeply, and you're paying attention.

You're Not Alone in This

When a child is struggling, the whole family feels it. Mornings get harder. Bedtime stretches into a negotiation marathon. Every day moments carry more tension than they used to, and you find yourself replaying difficult conversations at 11pm when you should absolutely be asleep.

Many parents in Littleton and the surrounding Denver area eventually reach a point where they search for something more, not because they've failed, but because they love their kid and want real support. You may have found yourself late at night typing "Littleton therapist for kids", “What is Play Therapy”, or "why is my child melting down over socks……again" into a search bar. (I can't help with the socks. But I can definitely help with understanding that it isn’t actually about the socks and get the possible why underneath the behavior)

Your search for answers to the biggest, baffling behaviors is important. And finding the right professional who is a good fit matters even more.

What to Look for in a Littleton Therapist for Your Child

You're not just looking for credentials. You're looking for someone who understands how children actually communicate through behavior, through play, through what they don't say. You need someone who understands child development, mental health, family dynamics, the therapeutic powers of play, and can relate to you as a parent who doesn’t have all that education, training, and background information, but has something the therapist will never have, a PHD in your child! In addition, not all mental health professionals have what it takes to work with kids! A great child therapist finds delight in children, is playful at heart, and knows that kids are not just shrunk-down versions of adults! They also know that the theory and interventions they studied were developed for adults and have invested in learning how to bridge the gap from textbook/classroom learning to real-life work with silly, loud, messy, shy, and sometimes even stinky kids!

The right therapist will help your child feel genuinely safe. Safe enough to open up. Safe enough to begin working through the hard stuff at their own pace. This relationship between the therapist and the child is an essential foundation for change, and it isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to lasting change. A great child therapist knows and understands that children need their own protected space to express, explore, learn, and heal. What happens in a child’s therapy session is confidential and protected in the same way that we guard confidentiality for adults in therapy. What is different for kids is that in order for them to make change, they need the adults in their life to know and understand what is happening and how to support them. SO while there is confidentiality, there is also a partnership with parents where the therapist takes what is happening in the therapy session and communicates it in ways parents can take action between sessions. Also, know that if there is any concern about your child’s safety, I am obligated to share that with you.

What sets a good child therapist apart:

• They meet kids where they are, not where adults expect them to be (every session without an agenda)

• They work with you, not just your child (parent consultation is the secret sauce)

• They understand that emotional struggles often show up as behavior (the what), not words and are a clue to what is driving the behavior (the why)

• They hold specialized training in child development and evidence-based approaches like play therapy— not just general adult therapy experience

• They take a neurodivergent-affirming approach, working with how your child's brain actually works rather than trying to normalize it or encourage masking

Meet Erin Bennetts, Littleton Therapist for Children and Families

Here's the honest truth about parenting: nobody actually knows what they're doing all the time. Not the parents who look like they have it together at school pickup. Not the ones with the color-coded family calendars. Definitely not anyone at 7 am on a Tuesday when someone is crying about the wrong color cup while the parent is weighed down with backpacks, lunch boxes, a laptop, and a mind racing to remember the never-ending demands that await today, while simply trying to get everyone out the door on time! Not even a registered play therapist who tried (and failed more than once) to apply her professional experience to raising her own 2 kids. I have been told that being a therapist’s kid is similar to being a pastor’s kid, IYKYK!

I'm Erin Bennetts, a licensed Clinical Social Worker and Registered Play Therapist serving children and families in the Littleton area. I've had the privilege over the past several decades of sitting with children who didn't yet have words for what they were carrying and watching them find their way to feeling safer, more understood, and more like themselves again. I've also sat with a lot of parents who walked in exhausted and walked out with a little more breathing room.

What I actually see in my office

Most of the kids I work with arrive in one of a few ways: anxious and shut down, bouncing off the walls, or so used to holding everything together that they've forgotten how to let go. I've learned that for many children, especially those who are neurodivergent, highly sensitive, or with vulnerable nervous systems, traditional talk therapy simply doesn't fit. That's why I dove deep into interpersonal neurobiology, brain science, child development, and trained in play therapy. This is also why I take a neurodivergent-affirming approach: working with how your child's brain actually works, not against it.

My work centers on child therapy and parent consultation, supporting families navigating anxiety, big emotions, behavioral challenges, and the kinds of life transitions that can quietly unravel even the most resilient human beings. I work with children and the parents who love them because real, lasting change happens when human beings feel safe, connected, regulated, and have the skills to do what is expected of them, no matter how young or old they are.

My Approach: The RPTS Difference

As a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor (RPTS), I've completed specialized post-graduate training and supervised clinical hours in play therapy beyond my LCSW licensure. It's a credential held by fewer than 5,000 therapists in the country and it means that working with children isn't a side offering here. It's the whole practice.

I specifically trained in Synergetic Play Therapy, which has its foundations in child-centered play therapy, interpersonal neurobiology, and the use of the therapist’s self-regulation in the playroom as the agent of change. In addition, I have completed Robyn Gobbel’s year-long Big Baffling Behaviors Immersion program and bring that into my work (and by life) every day with children and families.

Every child I work with has their own story. My job isn't to fit your child into a framework; it's to understand their world, meet them where they are, and create a space where they feel safe enough to do the real work of growing. Therapy here isn't something that happens to your child. It's something we build together, you, your child, and me. Collaborative, grounded, and yes, sometimes even a little fun.

A Note on Privacy

What your child shares in therapy stays in therapy. There are a few exceptions required by law, for example, if I have reason to believe a child is in danger, I'm required to act on that. But these aren't surprises. Before we begin, I'll walk you through exactly how confidentiality works, what it covers, and what it doesn't, so you and your child both know what to expect going in. We also cover how and what I share with parents so that you are an active participant in the therapy process from start to finish. You need information, support, and skills to support your child’s development, growth and healing.