A welcoming, healing space
Alex Gross
This most recent post is written by Simply Smiles Clinical Director Hallie Riggs, MSW, LCSW, CSW-PIP. Hallie outlines the therapeutic support services available to youth in our care, the foster family households, and biological family and kin at the Reservation Children’s Village. With the success of our 2021 Keep Hope Alive virtual fundraiser, we will soon be breaking ground on our therapy and wellness building, where these therapy services will be offered.
The primary intention of the therapeutic center on the Reservation Children's Village campus is to provide a safe, welcoming space for children to receive individual, group, and family therapy, as needed.
When a child first arrives at the Children's Village, an assessment is completed in order to determine the strengths and needs of each child, who in their world is most important to them, and how clinical staff at the Village can best use this information to support their healing. For some children, that healing can be best achieved through trauma-informed, child-centered individual therapy.
Circle of Courage®. Click the image to learn more.
Cultural components incorporated in therapy include being in nature, storytelling, planting, making music, beading, dancing, horseback riding, and other Lakota-centered approaches that promote healing. As a foundational resource, we view our clinical work through the lens of the Circle of Courage, “a model of positive youth development based on the universal principle that to be emotionally healthy all youth need a sense of belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity.”
Family therapy may also be provided at the Children’s Village, if it is determined to be clinically appropriate. An example of this might be that a biological parent and child participate in family therapy sessions in order for the child to safely express their needs prior to reunification. Another example might be that the child and the foster parent participate in family sessions in order to help build trust and articulate needs and expectations within the shared foster home.
Many of the children who will come to live at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village have experienced similar types of trauma: abuse and neglect, domestic violence, substance use exposure, death of or separation from loved ones, and other adversities. One of the best sources of support that children with these experiences can receive is the solidarity, normalcy, and comfort that comes from group therapy with peers. These groups typically have areas of focus, such as: social skills building, expressive arts, coping skills enhancement, and understanding trauma, to name a few. These groups are tailored to the specific needs of the children and teenagers living at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village, facilitated by our clinical staff.
On-site therapeutic resources also include support groups, coaching, and training for foster parents, as well as for birth family and other important people in children's lives, as needed. In order to truly meet the needs of the children in our care, it is essential that our clinical team is also supporting the adults closest to them: their birth family and the Foster Parents caring for them at the Children’s Village. Support groups for biological caregivers and for Foster Parents may be geared toward topics like self-care, understanding trauma, techniques for managing challenging behavior, among others. The therapeutic center is a welcoming, inclusive place where these groups and training can take place.
At the Simply Smiles Children's Village, we prioritize maintaining safe, meaningful connections with the people who are most important to the children in our care. When visits take place with birth parents, siblings, grandparents, or other important people, they occur at the therapeutic center. This home-like setting allows for family to cook a meal in the kitchen, watch a movie in the common area, play outside, and be together in a way that doesn't feel institutionalized or cold, but rather, warm and home-like. This important component of our philosophy and work led to designing a therapeutic center that included these communal spaces.
The Simply Smiles Children’s Village was designed intentionally with clinical support on-site so that whether a child experiences an emergency and is in need of immediate mental health support, or if foster parents would like to have an impromptu chat to share about a recent concern or strategize ways to help children at home, our clinical staff are a phone call and a few minutes away.
a village of foster homes:
An architectural rendering of the Simply Smiles Children’s Village, including four foster homes, a common building, and a therapy center. Click the image to take a virtual tour!
Sunset at the Simply Smiles Children’s Village on the Cheyenne River Reservation, overlooking two of our foster homes.