Services for families

Grief Support

Grief can be extremely hard to navigate for little ones. It can feel overwhelming, complicated, and traumatic. Healing Hearts lends a healing touch to families dealing with a loved one’s diagnosis or loss. Healing Hearts helps guide children and families through the grieving process through appropriate diagnosis education, therapeutic opportunities, and emotional support.

Support is provided to families in Hospice by implementing end-of-life preparation and understanding as well as memory making and legacy building opportunities.

Services are available within the home, a public space, or virtual environment. Services include palliative care services and hospice care support, parent or caregiver loss, sibling loss, and grief support in a classroom setting.

Medical Preparation and Support

Healing Hearts prepares and supports children through medical procedures. Using developmentally appropriate language, visual aids, teaching dolls, and medical materials, your child will feel confident and prepared to undergo a procedure.

Healing Hearts works directly with the child to determine what the best type of support method would be during a procedure (breathing exercises, pain management techniques, comfort holds, etc.).

Examples of procedures:

Pill Swallowing

Do you struggle at home with bribing your child with endless incentives so he or she will take their medication? If so, you are not alone.

Pill swallowing can be daunting for children and parents. Healing Hearts lessens this fear and anxiety through developmentally appropriate reasoning and therapeutic play. The whole family can feel at ease when a child actively takes their medication with understanding rather than fear.

Needle Phobia (Trypanophobia)

Healing Hearts provides preparation and support to children who are fearful of needles. Personalized session(s) include preparation of immunization, blood draw or injection, tangible pain management, and distraction methods. Therapeutic play is an essential outlet for children to process their fear of needles.

Diagnosis Education

For the child: When a child is diagnosed with a new illness, they often feel a loss of control. Healing Hearts supports children through education and coping to gain mastery of a new diagnosis.

Below are a few examples:

For siblings: Siblings often feel the burden of a new diagnosis. Healing Hearts creates a safe space for therapeutic coping and appropriate education for the siblings as they navigate unfamiliar changes.

Welcoming home a newborn from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is the greatest gift. This time also comes with new challenges for parents and siblings. Healing Hearts adds a healing touch at these joyous and stressful times through education, processing, and therapeutic outlets.

Military Family Support

As a military spouse, Stacey has personal experience of deployments, the reintegration process, and the challenges faced by parents during these times. Healing Hearts supports children before a deployment/prolonged separation through education on what to expect and assists with establishing developmentally appropriate routines during this emotionally turbulent time.

Stacey also understands the importance of homecoming. Although homecomings can be wonderful, the reintegration of a loved one back into a family setting can be stressful. Using her own experiences, Stacey supports military families who are navigating reintegration of a loved one back into a routine.