The Kid Counselor Center - Specialist Child Therapists Exclusively for kids 3-14 - Lutz, Florida

Brecken Bates

Ms. Lauren was such a blessing to my daughter and our family. For the 9 months that my daughter attended therapy, she built an unbelievable rapport with Ms. Lauren, which allowed her to really build her self confidence and work through many of her anxieties (including nightmares) while in the playroom. With consistent weekly visits, it was truly amazing to watch her transformation! If you are considering play therapy for your child, please reach out to the Kid Counselor Center for a consultation to learn more. I promise, you will not be disappointed! It truly is an amazing process. Thank you so much to Ms. Lauren!

Klaudia Ratajczak

We have been going to Kid Counselor for several months, and it has been the best experience! The staff is simply amazing. Ms. Lauren is not only a top-tier counselor but also a fantastic person. She is both professional and empathetic, creating a welcoming environment. We have noticed several significant improvements in my child's daily life. Kudos to Ms. Mya for always responding in a timely manner and adjusting our schedule as needed. I highly recommend Kid Counselor.

Aga Saunders

The Kid Counselor Center and Ms. Lauren are passionate and knowledgable in play therapy and helped our son overcome his anxiety.

Mallory Martin

Within 3 or 4 visits to Brenna, my husband and I began to see noticeable changes in our daughter’s behavior. Looking back over the months her behavior is like night and day. I would recommend Brenna to anyone whose child is exhibiting behavioral concerns.

We knew nothing about play therapy going into it and I am so happy it was recommended to us by a friend and we decided to explore it. We were skeptical to say the least but it has been nothing short of amazing!

Brenna also always took whatever time my husband and I needed to discuss sessions and any questions that we threw at her outside of our normal appointments. She really cares about our daughter and it showed. Our daughter asks regularly still “if she can go to visit Ms. Brenna.” We are SO grateful to her and appreciate her services!

Terry Steven

Definitely worth the time to help your child grow. Don’t expect to see results right away, but over time the play therapy does help you better understand how your child processes information and he/she will learn how to better understand themselves. Brenna will take the time to explain your child’s behaviors and help you identify triggers and strategies to help you and your child learn to control behaviors. My daughter struggled with self control, anxiety, and confidence prior to her visits. Today she still has some moments, but she is better equipped to handle those situations with better self regulation. She is more confident and out going in public and has less “meltdowns”. Just keep in mind you as the parent are part of the equation too and Brenna definitely helped my wife and I understand that, and now we are all able to work together.

David Johnson

Let me start by saying that we feel like we have our boy back!! After years of searching for answers by reading every child behavioral book, and getting evaluated by another therapist only to get labels and no real solutions and help, we finally found the answer we were looking for with Dr. Brenna’s play therapy. Our son was exhibiting a lot of aggression, towards us and his siblings and extremely defiant behavior and outbursts. There was a lot of power struggles and was very strong willed.

After meeting with Brenna for the initial consult she explained everything so well to us and helped us to understand how NOT broken our child was and helped us to see the why behind the behavior. When we started the sessions things got worse before they got better. We started to really see amazing shifts in his behavior and his ability to self regulate about weeks 10-12. At our 5 week follow up meetings, Dr. Hicks was so detailed with what she saw in play therapy and the why behind what she saw. She helped us by role playing how we would respond to him and gave us incredible tools to help going forward. She was truly amazing in every aspect in the process. Honestly, we miss her. Our son worked so hard in therapy and has tools for life now. He can self regulate and is such a joy to be around. You know your child has made great changes when other people say stuff to you that they’ve noticed how different he is. We are so incredibly grateful to Dr. Brenna and her work. We HIGHLY recommend her! We have our boy back! Best investment we ever made!

Alex and Lynn Moran

We loved having Mrs. Brenna work with our 5 year old daughter. From the moment we met with her at our consultation we felt that Brenna knew our daughter. Brenna was describing her and the dynamics of our family and other siblings to a T having not even met her. We knew in that moment that what felt like a hopeless situation now had hope and we felt confident that Mrs. Brenna knew what our daughter needed and had a plan to get her there. We were so impressed with Brenna and how she communicates with children and parents. Brenna never makes kids or parents feel defeated or judged. She is generous in her time and efforts to provide parents with free resources through her blog and YouTube channel. Last year our family of 6 was unable to do normal family outings, or even go to a store or have family routines without a meltdown, power struggle or harsh words. Brenna helped us understand how to reflect our daughter’s feelings and how to validate her and give her choices that helped minimize our power struggles. In paying attention to all that Brenna does so intentionally, intricately, and yet gracefully, we as parents were able to reflect on ourselves, our habits, and role in our daughter’s behavior. She taught us to reflect on how our parents parented us and how that’s affecting us now, and learned strategies that have even been helpful with our other children and healing our entire family dynamic. After less than 6 months we are now able to enjoy our daughter, can go out and about and do things we used to enjoy. We are seeing the gifts come out in our daughter that she has always had that were buried in bad behaviors. She is happier, calmer, more in control, and most importantly, more self-regulated. I’d love to keep my daughter with Brenna forever but that’s not a reality. Thankfully we leave confidently knowing that we have the skills and knowledge to do the hard work that continues daily, and Brenna has helped us understand our role in helping our daughter feel her emotional best. We are so thankful to have found Brenna and love that she believes in the inherent goodness in children, despite seeing them often at their worst. Brenna believes in her methods using play therapy and knows that she can use play therapy to modify behaviors using a holistic approach. She allows kids to play like kids and bring about changes to their issues at their pace and through their own direction. Brenna never once tried to diagnose or label our daughter with something that could have shifted her identity or affected her with lasting implications in the future. Brenna showed us that she understood our daughter’s behavior was not who she is, and she helped me and my husband see it too. Brenna is gifted in her work with families and we know we can always visit her again if we need it.

martha scoggins

Brenna is amazing! She is so gentle and loving but knows exactly how to get your child’s attention. My daughter is in love with Brenna and was so sad when her sessions were over. I cannot possibly recommend her enough. She helped my child tremendously during my divorce and helped me to see her behavioral issues as a reaction to her emotions and how to help her express those in healthier ways. I’m so grateful my daughter had her during this difficult time