Little Way Child Life

Helping Children Cope with Life's Challenges

What is Child Life?

Certified Child Life Specialists (CCLS) are child development experts certified by the Association of Child Life Professionals to help children understand and cope with stressful situations. Child Life practice draws upon knowledge from child development, psychology, medicine, and other fields to support children and families.

Play

Play

Medical and Therapeutic Play help children process and express emotions, understand the world, and cope with new experiences. Play is at the center of child life practice.

Education

Education

Child Life Specialists are experts in child development and use child-friendly language and materials to teach children about medical procedures and stressful situations

Coping Skills

Coping Skills

Child Life Specialists teach children the skills they need to lower pain, manage emotions, and face stressful situations with courage. With coping skills such as deep breathing, guided imagery, and distraction, children can sit still for x-rays, participate in their own glucose checks, or laugh and play on their way to surgery.

Emotional Support

Emotional Support

With help from a Child Life Specialist, kids can process and express difficult emotions and make sense of pain, loss, and death.

Developmental Support

Developmental Support

CCLS use play to help support optimal development for all children, including children born prematurely and children with developmental disabilities.

About Me
My name is Katie Baxley, and I've been a Certified Child Life Specialist since 2016. I've always loved working with children, and Child Life allows me to pull from many different disciplines to support children and families through a variety of stressful situations.

I obtained my Master's of Education in Child Studies from Vanderbilt University, and subsequently spent 5 years working with children and families in hospital settings in three different states. I now have three children of my own and decided to branch into private practice to both be more present for my children and to be able to more flexibly meet the needs of children and families in my community.

Please browse through my website and contact me to learn more about how I can support your family.


How Child Life Specialists Help

Preparation and Support for

Medical Procedures and Doctor's Visits

Does your child hate shots? Maybe your child has surgery scheduled and you don't know how to prepare them so they won't be scared. I teach kids about medical procedures and doctor's visits in ways they can understand, using play and child-friendly language to help kids know what to expect. We practice coping skills together, such as distraction and deep breathing, and if needed, I can go with you to a visit to help your child use their coping skills.

Education and Coping Skills for

Chronic Illnesses and Disabilities

If your child has a serious or chronic condition or disability, you know how complex their coping needs can be. Whether your child needs help understanding a new diabetes diagnosis, struggles to manage pain from sickle cell crises, or doesn't know how to explain hair loss or an amputation to friends at school, I use developmentally-appropriate education, medical play, and coping skill practice to help your child understand their diagnosis, cope with treatments and side effects, and express their emotions.

Emotional Support and Education for

Grief, Death, and Dying

If your child has experienced the death of a loved one, or if anyone in your family has a terminal illness, I want to express my deepest condolences. I know this is an impossible situation, and it's only made worse by having to watch your child grieve. Although I can't take away any of the hurt or pain, I can help you find the words to explain death or loss of any kind to your child. I can also help your child and family use art and play to process emotions, keep family connections strong through this time, and create a legacy for loved ones who have died.

Coping and Emotional Support for

Siblings and Family Members

Whenever I provide services for a child, my approach includes the entire family. Siblings especially may have complex emotions arising from their sibling's illness, condition, or disability. When appropriate, I work with entire families or directly with siblings, using play, education, and coping skill practice to help families connect and thrive in the midst of stressful life situations.

Support for

Stressful Life Situations

From moving to a new city or a new school to welcoming a new baby or family member, children often face stressful situations, both positive and negative, outside of medical appointments and hospital visits. If your child is having difficulty understanding or coping with any situation, I can use play, expressive activities, and child-friendly language to help them process and express emotions and develop coping skills. Not sure if your child's situation is a good fit for my services? Just give me a call and I'd be happy to chat about your child's needs.

 
 
Why "Little Way?"
I provide services to anyone who needs them, regardless of religion or any other characteristic. Personally, I am Catholic, and my understanding of my career and my calling to help children is rooted in my faith. My confirmation saint, St. Therese of Lisieux, wrote about "the little way." which she described as being holy by doing small things with great love. I seek to reflect this in my practice, by pouring my whole soul into everything I do, no matter the situation. That means that whether your child is facing a flu shot or major surgery, my commitment to helping them achieving their coping goals is always 100%. 

My Services

Consultation

Before individual sessions, I provide consultations with a parent or guardian to review child and family goals and determine whether child life services are appropriate for your family.

Private Sessions

Individualized coping or education sessions take place in your home or a community setting

Teddy Bear Clinics

Teddy Bear Clinics allow children to explore and learn about medical experiences and build trust for future medical encounters

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F.A.Q

I have a Master's of Child Studies from Vanderbilt University and am a Certified Child Life Specialist through the Association of Child Life Professionals.
I live in Dahlonega, but I provide services either in your home or at a public location convenient to you, such as a library. In some situations, I can also provide support during medical procedures or doctor's visits.
I work with children and teens of all ages, and I can also provide services for individuals over 18 in some situations, such as a 19 year old struggling with a cancer diagnosis, or a 21 year old with autism facing an upcoming surgery. 
I cannot bill insurance for you, but some insurances may provide reimbursement to you for my services. Additionally, you may be able to receive reimbursement from your HSA. I will provide documentation for you to give to your insurance upon request. If you are worried you cannot afford my services, please contact me. I will work with you to help your child get the support they need.
I am not a therapist, and I cannot prevent, diagnose, or treat any specific medical condition, including mental illness. If I determine that your child or family's needs are outside of my scope of practice, I will gladly provide referrals to appropriate providers. 
As a healthcare professional, I am bound by HIPAA as well as by the ACLP code of ethics. I do not release information about clients without a signed release of information except where required by law. For more information, please read my Privacy Policy, available below.
Expect a lot of fun for everyone! Teddy Bear Clinics are fully customized to the organization, school, or business hosting them. They can include both medical play with toy doctor kits and realistic medical experiences such as placing a real IV in a teddy bear. All activities will always be guided by a certified child life specialist, and all staff leading activities will receive training before the event on how to help kids safely explore medical experiences through play.

Contact

  • Dahlonega, GA, USA

Have a question? Send me a message and I'll respond ASAP. Please do not use this form to submit referrals or any private healthcare information. Instead, send me a fax or upload documents to your secure client portal.


Teddy Bear Clinics

Teddy Bear Clinics build trust between medical providers and the community and help normalize medical experiences for children. Teddy Bear Clinics by Little Way Child Life include expert guidance from a certified child life specialist and training for staff on how to engage in medical play with children.

Are you interested in hosting a teddy bear clinic at your organization, school, or office? Fill out the form below and I'll get back to you quickly with a customized quote. Have more questions? Call me today at (762) 303-0851!
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Teddy Bear Clinics

For Medical Providers

Case Consultations

Confidential consultation on individual cases to help you support coping and development for your patients

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Team Training

Training for your entire team in child development, bereavement support, and coping support

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Teddy Bear Clinics

A customized experience for your patients or students to support coping and increase community engagement

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Case Consultations
Do you have a patient who refuses to take medications? Who kicks you whenever you enter the room for a shot or procedure? Have you recently had a case where you wish you had known how to help a family process a difficult diagnosis? For any cases involving child and family coping, a child life case consultation can help you provide the best possible support for your patients and their families.

Team Trainings

Customized Learning

Coping and Development Seminars are led by a certified child life specialist and are customized to the unique needs of your team and practice. Topics include: Grief Support, Procedure Preparation and Support, Diagnosis Education, Infant and Child Development, and Provider Self-Care. Other related topics are also available upon request.

Grief Support

In this seminar, your team will learn how to discuss death and dying using developmentally appropriate language and will learn tips for coping with death as healthcare providers. Participants will learn how to identify developmentally appropriate expressions of grief and how to help parents to share news about death and dying with children. Anonymized case studies will be discussed to help providers contextualize lessons to their own practice. As a child life specialist, I have helped numerous families process grief and explain death to their children and I have coached other providers on how to have these difficult conversations. I look forward to helping your team feel more confident discussing death and dying.

Procedure Preparation and Support

In this class, your team will learn how to provide developmentally-appropriate coping support to infants, children, and teenagers undergoing medical procedures, including vaccines, scans, surgeries, or other procedures relevant to your practice. Participants will learn strategies to improve patient understanding and compliance, and reduce patient pain and stress. Participants will also learn how to effectively utilize parents as part of a child's coping team for procedures. This in turn helps improve patient satisfaction and reduce the need for additional staff, restraints, and sedation for procedures. As a child life specialist, I have helped thousands of children and families have positive experiences with a wide range of medical procedures and have successfully educated staff at multiple staff in how to improve patient coping. I look forward to helping your team turn procedures into an opportunity for positive patient coping!

Diagnosis Education

This seminar will help providers feel more confident educating parents and children about illnesses or conditions, from a minor injury to a chronic diagnosis. Participants will learn how children of different developmental levels understand and process health-related information and learn words and techniques to help children understand their health. Providers who participate in this class will also learn how to empower parents to educate their children about their conditions. Finally, participants will learn strategies for improving diagnosis-related coping and treatment compliance. I have provided education to children and families on numerous diagnoses and conditions, including diabetes, cancer, IBD, amputation, and more. I look forward to helping your team increase patient understand and coping.

Infant and Child Development

This class is designed to help providers learn the basics of emotional and psychological development, especially as it relates to healthcare and their specific practice. Participants will learn the importance of play, how to assess patient coping, and how children of different ages understand healthcare experiences and learn most effectively. Participants should expect to leave this class feeling more confident in their ability to communicate effectively with children of all ages. Please note: This class is not intended to help participants assess possible delays in development or to determine when treatment for developmental issues may be needed. As a child life specialist, I am an expert on child development, but diagnosis or treatment of developmental delays is outside of my scope of practice.

Provider Self-Care

In this class, your team will learn the importance of self-care and how to differentiate between burnout and compassion fatigue. They will learn about the research behind self-care among healthcare providers and will have the opportunity to create individualized self-care plans as individuals and as a team. Apart from practicing self-care as a provider, I have also been published in the Child Life Bulletin on this subject, given multiple talks about self-care to hospital employees, and have led support groups focused on self-care for NICU parents. I am passionate about self-care and would love to help your team craft their own self-care plans.