At times, parenting can be an overwhelming experience for everyone. Now, the University of North Texas is offering parents some help.

The UNT Center for Play Therapy is holding Child-Parent Relationship Therapy groups beginning the week of Feb. 22 in Denton and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The groups are open to all parents are welcome and will include specific groups for adoptive parents of 8 to 13-year-olds, military families and UNT faculty and staff. Prices for the course will vary and child care and snacks will be provided.

The 10-week course will help parents understand their child’s emotional needs, help them communicate more effectively with their child and feel more confident and in control as a parent.

“We are giving parents the skills that we have so they can become the therapeutic agents of change for their children,” said Alyssa Swan, assistant director of UNT’s Center for Play Therapy and doctoral student. “Child parent relationship therapy helps parents be more attuned and responsive to their children’s emotional world.”

Swan said parenting can be an isolating and overwhelming experience for many parents, especially those with children who may be struggling behaviorally or emotionally.

“A lot of parents often feel like they are failing and the therapy groups will give them a different skill set and help them see their kids in a new way,” Swan said.

UNT’s Center for Play Therapy, located at 425 South Welch Street, opened in the 1970s and boasts the largest play therapy library in the world. Swan said play therapy is generally used with young children and gives them an outlet to express their experiences and feelings through a natural, self-guided, self-healing process. February 5-11 is National Play Therapy Week.

“We know that play therapy works and we know that it works even better when parents are involved,” Swan said.

For more information about the courses or play therapy in general, contact UNT’s Center for Play Therapy at 940-565-3864 or email cpt@unt.edu or Alyssa.swan@unt.edu.