Services for
Families

Family Mental Health & Occupational Therapy from Pre-natal to Early Childhood (0-4yrs)

Perinatal & Parental Mental Health, Early Parenting Support

Trauma-Sensitive Yoga/Mindful Movement & Mindfulness

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We can assist with mental wellbeing, parenting & child development from pregnancy through to the kindergarten years.…

Pre and post-natal physical & mental health
Caring for your baby & self-care
Parent-infant/child attachment concerns - connecting and bonding
0-4yrs developmental, behavioural, and mental health challenges – assessment, occupational therapy & referrals
Healing developmental, complex, and perinatal trauma
Parenting & family relational difficulties
Gross & Fine motor development skills, including pre-writing skills, pencil grasp and control
Development of routines and schedules
Sensory processing (Accurate registration, interpretation and response to sensory stimulation in the environment and their own body)
Emotional regulation – co-regulation & recognition of emotions in self and others
Increasing independence in self-care skills (washing, dressing, grooming, eating, toileting and more)
Play skills & building social skills
Routines and Schedules
Group programs and individual sessions

Resources and Helplines

All families will be treated with compassion and an understanding that you are the expert of your experience and your own life.

Kristen will share her experience as a mental health OT for infants through to adulthood, as an early childhood occupational therapist, a trauma-sensitive yoga therapist & mindfulness facilitator, and utilise her professional and lived experience to collaborate with you. As a parent with lived experience, including being a carer and recovery from perinatal and childhood trauma, Kristen is here to support and empower you.

Q & A:

What does an Early Childhood Intervention Occupational Therapist (ECI OT) do? We work with children 0-4yrs and their family & carers to enable infants & young children to live happily and independently by providing therapy based around meaningful activities.

What do Infant/early childhood and Family mental health clinicians do? We assist with developing the capacity of the child from birth to up to 5 years of age and their family/carers, to form close relationships, manage and express emotions, and explore the environment and learn.

What do Mental Health OT’s do? We draw on a range of focussed psychological services and occupational therapy strategies to help people understand, manage, and thrive with their daily function. Kristen is a BAMH OT through Medicare enabling her to provide Medicare funded team-based mental health care alongside your GP. Paediatrician or Psychiatrist, in addition to working with self-referring families, or families utilising other funding sources such as the NDIS.

What is Trauma-Sensitive Yoga - TC-TSY? It is an evidence-based mindful movement program for people affected by traumatic stress, complex trauma, CPTSD, or other related behavioural and emotional conditions.

Services for Families

Services

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50 or 90 minute assessment & therapy appointments
@ Barefoot Therapists

Monday 9am to 1pm & Friday 10 am to 2 pm

(In-person or via Telehealth)

Pre and Post-natal appointments (pregnancy and the first year)
Birth to 4yrs (& family/carer) early intervention OT
Parenting Consultations
Family mental health

Book Now

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Group Programs (delivered with trauma-sensitivity)
@ Barefoot Therapists

Mondays & Tuesdays

Mini Movers on Monday 10.30-11.30 am: 5 x 50 minute small group sessions for infants/toddlers (2 months old to 3 year olds) and their carers (yoga, mindfulness, song, story, play and connection)
Mindful parenting programs - Tuesdays: Facilitated by Kristen, or Kristen & Mike Pringle.

Book Now

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Free Family Consultation enquiry call or referral

Request a free 10 minute Zoom call if you would like to talk to Kristen before making an appointment

Meet the Director – Kristen Pringle
Family Mental Health Occupational Therapist

Kristen Pringle Mental Health Occupational Therapist

Kristen Pringle has worked in the family health sector for over 15 years, after completing a Master of Occupational Therapy Practice and further post-graduate studies in Infant and Parent Mental Health, and trauma-sensitive yoga. Prior to Kristen’s career as an OT she worked in childcare, as a kindergarten assistant, as an early childhood music and movement teacher, and a pre/post-natal and mums and bubs yoga teacher!

For the past 15 years, Kristen has worked with families in their own homes, at hospitals, at childcare centres/kindergartens and in community. Kristen has worked with: pregnant mums, 0–5-year-olds, and their families trying to navigate our healthcare system; parents and young children with mental health struggles, including the impact of family violence, birth trauma, complex post traumatic stress and loss/grief; infants and children with developmental delays and diagnoses; families struggling with parenting, or the isolation of feeling they are alone in their struggles: and as a specialist advising multiple healthcare systems, educational systems, crisis and emergency systems and family oriented organisations. Within this time, Kristen & Mike had two fantastic children of their own.

Kristen dreamt of starting up a centre where a 'wrap around service' was available for adult parental mental health, perinatal mental health, infant and early childhood mental health, paediatric occupational therapy, & wellbeing services, such as trauma-sensitive yoga & mindfulness. Where infants, young children and their families/carers would be welcomed with warmth and compassion, feel heard and not judged, in a place that cultivated a sense of nurturing and safety, surrounded by the tranquillity of nature. And so, the Mindful Movement Centre at Barefoot Therapists began.