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Brenna is fantastic at connecting with children, and creating a safe and fun place for growth and healing. Kids always excited to spend time, and we saw immense change in... read more their ability to have emotional intelligence, expression, and coping. We saw week after week growth and change in their confidence, communication, self-actualization, and situational coping as well as their focus, demeanor, and motivation.

I highly recommend Ms. Brenna, I was at my wits end when I brought my son to her, he was having a hard time at school not wanting to go,... read more having huge melt downs often at home, he seemed angry all time. I tried everything to help him and the doctors said I should start him on medication but I really did not want to do that. So I found The Kid Counselor and decide to give it a try, not really believing play therapy alone would ever help him or be enough. But I am a believer now!!! She completely changed my son!! He loves school now he has learned to control his temper and he is really happy! Words cannot express my gratitude for Ms Brenna. I will be forever thankful for her and what she did for our family. ❤️

Brenna has helped my girls and family SO much!!! I HIGHLY recommend her!! Excellent professional, great listener and superb communication! We ALL enjoyed our time with her!

Dr. Hicks is a true proven professional that takes every child she cares for to the highest personal level. Finally someone that truly cares about her patients! she worked with... read more our daughter for most of 2017 and has an unbelievable approach to treatment. She is the best there is hands down!

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... read more 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.

Dr. Hicks was incredible in helping our son and us with play therapy. We were unsure if some of our 5 year old son's expressed feelings had a physical or... read more emotional source and having exhausted all the standard medical options with no clear diagnosis, we were fortunate to find The Kid Counselor Center. After our first meeting with Dr. Hicks, we knew we were in the right place and in good hands as she understood what we were dealing with and offered hope for a way out of our uncertainty and concern. Over time, our son's expressions of physical discomfort began to dissipate and now having completed the work in play therapy have nearly completely disappeared. We feel confident that Dr. Hicks was able to teach him tools that allow him to express his emotional feelings and that he will continue to progress with these life skills. As parents, we are no longer wracked with anxiety as he just doesn't seem to be suffering any more like he once was. Dr. Hicks is a skilled professional who has extensive knowledge in the area of children's emotions and psychology. She showed us that she has genuine and heartfelt care and love for our child and truly wanted to help. She demonstrated empathy and understanding and always made herself accessible any time we wanted to talk or sort through something. We highly recommend Dr. Hicks and The Kid Counselor to any parent who sees their child struggling. She was an answer to our prayers. 5 Stars!!!

Immediately after our son turned 4 years old his behavior at home and preschool took a nose-dive. He was aggressive, disrespectful, self-injuring, not listening and antagonistic. After looking into different... read more behavioral therapy options we decided on play therapy with Dr. Brenna. What better way for a kid to work out his/her issues than through what they do best; play? It was great. Our son went once a week for an hour and just had fun. He had no idea we had an agenda. Which to us was important. We didn't want him to think he was "bad" or "defective" but we wanted to get him the help he needed so we could nip whatever issues he was having in the bud and hopefully avoid more problems when he is a teenager and more difficult to manage. Dr. Brenna was wonderful. She was very kind and caring, supportive and professional. Our son clicked with her quickly and would be very excited to go see her and play every week. We noticed an immediate improvement in behavior after only one or two sessions. He was regulating his emotions better. Less angry outbursts and hitting himself. Being more cooperative and calm. Even at preschool his behavior improved. He went from getting a bad report every day to getting a good one. After only 15 sessions we can honestly say our son has grown tremendously in his attitude and behavior. He is more considerate of others, he thinks before he acts now and considers the consequences of his actions, he is helpful and thoughtful and much less explosive. Dr. Brenna offered a parenting training seminar that we also found very helpful. It teaches parents to use the same methods of interaction that she uses in play therapy. It has really helped us a lot at home in correcting behavior in a kind, loving, respectful and effective manner. He really responds well to this system of reflecting feeling, choice giving, limit setting and enforcing consequences if the limit is vioated. And he doesn't argue when we have to enforce a negative consequence, because he knew his choices ahead of time and he made the choice fully aware of the consequence. It is empowering for him and lifts the burden of us being "the bad guys" all the time. We really can't recommend Dr. Brenna enough. My son had a great experience and we are very pleased with the results.

If you’re reading reviews, then you’re considering play therapy for your child. And lucky for you, you’ve found the best. Dr. Hicks is professional, smart, articulate, caring, respectful, and incredibly... read more knowledgeable. After being told by several academic settings (and even professionals who never even spent time with my son!) “maybe he needs a diagnosis” or “maybe medications might help,” we knew that those weren’t the next step. Thankfully, our research led us to Dr. Hicks. Dr.Hicks is the first professional we met who wasn’t trying to “diagnosis” our son. She wanted to give him and US the tools to navigate his emotions and behaviors. And that she did. (I HIGHLY recommend her parenting workshop,too.) Dr. Hicks was accommodating to all our needs and always willingly to consult with professionals involved in our son’s care. This was crucial, esp in the educational setting. We will be forever thankful to have her as part of our son’s team!

Dr. Hicks is an outstanding woman who is excellent with children. My husband and I always leave her office so impressed with her ability to communicate and relate... read more with the child. I would highly, highly recommend Dr. Hicks, and will assure you that your child will feel comfortable in her professional and caring hands.

Taking my son to Ms. Brenna was life changing. My 4 year old son was genetically pre-disposed to anger and behavioral issues and was being removed from school after school.... read more You could tell his own confidence was deteriorating. Working with Ms. Brenna, we were able to help him restore his confidence and re-wire him to understand the right and wrong. As parents we learned how he operated and how to control behavior through choices, which she taught us. The hardest part was understanding this is not a quick fix but seeing his progression has been amazing and so well worth it. Ms. Brenna has done wonders with my baby and it’s hard to even think where he would be if I didn’t take him to her. He is still progressing so well in school they are now talking about taking him off his behavior plan.

We are so thankful for finding Ms. Brenna! She has assisted our son in understanding his fears and anxieties and gave him the proper tools to manage them.... read more After 15 sessions he felt able to move on and be successful on his own. We would highly recommend The Kid Counselor and play therapy to everyone!

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... read more 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.