This group is focused on the parent-child relationship. It is designed for families with adopted children or children in a stable foster or kinship relationship (future offerings may include groups for families with different relational needs – please let us know of your interest).

Tune-Ups is for parents (or other significant caregivers) and children to attend together, in pairs – one adult with one child (families who wish to have more than one child participate in the same group need to have additional adults as well). We do require that the same adult-child pair attends each session, as the activities build on each other and deepen as we go.

Our prototype group is designed for early-elementary age children, about 5 – 8 years old. Future offerings may include groups for both older and younger children, and even tweens and teens – please let us know of your interest!

Also called the Orff approach, or just Music for Children, this is a developmentally informed approach to learning music that combines music, movement, drama, and speech in a way that is similar to a child’s natural world of play. Children are the creators, composers, and choreographers while they enjoy making music as individuals and in groups, without the pressure to perform. They experience the joy of the collective attention, energy and creativity of the group, including the participation of other adults and parents in music making. “Orff activities awaken the child’s total awareness” and “sensitize the child’s awareness of space, time, form, line, color, design, and mood.” (for more information visit www.AOSA.org)

Theraplay® is a child and family therapy for building and enhancing attachment, self-esteem, trust in others, and joyful engagement. It is based on the natural patterns of playful, healthy interaction between parent and child and is personal, physical, and fun. Theraplay interactions focus on four essential qualities found in parent-child relationships: Structure, Engagement, Nurture, and Challenge. Theraplay sessions create an active, emotional connection between the child and parent or caregiver, resulting in a changed view of the self as worthy and lovable and of relationships as positive and rewarding. (for more information visit www.theraplay.org)

Theraplay® and Orff are like peanut butter and chocolate – two great ideas that go great together! They share some basic concepts – for example, they’re both developmentally based on natural patterns of play and healthy interactions, and they make use of familiar forms of expression (nursery rhymes, folk music, etc.) as well as adapted, improvised, and co-created activities. Plus, they’re both designed to be fun!

Orff is typically taught in a classroom setting to groups of children, but using the Theraplay framework makes it easily accessible to parent-child pairs. The Orff activities have all the essential elements of Theraplay activities: structure, engagement, nurture and challenge.

While the primary goals of each approach may be different (learning music vs. enhancing relationships), they’re certainly complementary! The way the body and brain engage in each of these processes help support the same outcomes: increased attunement and capacity for emotional regulation. Making music together has always been a way human beings “tune-in” (attune) to and connect with each other.

In each session, the facilitators (a certified Orff music instructor and a Theraplay-trained therapist) will guide the group in a variety of Orff and Theraplay activities. Parents will be guided in how to lead their children when appropriate. Each session will include one or more themes (such as “togetherness”) that support healthy relationships.

Participants will play musical instruments including xylophones, drums, and non-pitched percussion instruments. We will also sing, chant, clap, dance, pat, and snap fingers! The music played is largely based on simple but forceful variations on rhythmic patterns. This makes for very simple and beautiful musical forms, which are easily learned by young children and adults and that have a universal appeal.

There are certainly similarities. Many parents have found those groups to be a valuable and precious part of their families’ lives, and helpful in creating healthy family relationships. However, by elementary school age, those groups are no longer available to families, and that kind of special parent-child interaction often falls to the wayside as schedules get busy and music is left to the schools or lessons.

For many families with children who have been adopted or are in foster care, those key experiences were not part of the developmental or relationship-building process, or there are still developmental and relational needs from that early period even when children are chronologically older.

Tune-Ups! groups are unique in that they are focused on meeting those needs and enhancing healthy relationships through Orff music combined with the Theraplay approach.

Above all else, the groups are FUN – and who doesn’t want to have more fun with their kids?

Our prototype group consists of 6 weekly 45-minute sessions, meeting in Scotts Valley, for $325 (discounts available for full payment in advance, or for multiple adult-child pairs from one family).

This structure may change as we implement more groups.