Welcome.

An important part of childhood is learning to make and keep friends. Some children, whether from temperament, early experiences, or developmental differences, have a harder time forming successful and meaningful connections with their peers.

What do we do?

We lead social skills and friendship groups for children in the greater Seattle area. Our mission is to help children learn and practice the skills they need to connect with peers through friendship and play.

Our groups are based on research-proven interventions for children who struggle with social skills and making and keeping friends. We use a small-group format that meets weekly for 12 weeks to learn and practice social skills. This format allows us to teach skills that build from basic back-and-forth conversation skills to more complex playground negotiations. We also have weekly "homework" projects for children and parents that will help them start to form more successful friendships at home and school.

These techniques have been shown to help children avoid rejection, and form fulfilling friendships with peers. Participants learn to share & listen, join in play, collaborate with peers, and resolve conflicts without aggression. We also teach skills like finding shared interests, nurturing appropriate friendships, and responding to teasing and bullying.

Who do we help?

We work with school-age children and adolescents. Many of our clients were adopted from foster or orphanage care, have ADHD, Asperger's, or other issues that can make friendships difficult. We also serve typically-developing children who feel alienated by peers, struggle to make friends, or experience a great deal of conflict in social settings.

Who are we?

BeFriended is run by Kimberlee Hartley, MSW, a graduate of the University of Washington School of Social Work. She has recently taught social skills and bullying prevention at the John Stanford International School; previously, she counseled youth and their families at Seattle Mental Health, a charter school in Boston, and the Brighton Children's Community Support Program. She's married to a pediatrician, and is raising a very social 17-month-old.