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I like it a lot because, you know, all these things are going on, it’s all happening, and when I go on the mat to play I’m just really relaxed and nothing is bothering me anymore.”

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 First thing is that she is always gentle and she never tries to hurt you. Another thing is that when you try to do something that is kind to her she always recognizes it and says thanks for it. It makes me feel really known, that I have problems and that I can solve them.

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She makes it simple and she has ways that make it easy to understand. If you want to say something bad, she always replaces it with something good, warming your heart. Elle makes a lot of kids feel safe here including me.

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It’s just totally pleasant. Nothing is going wrong. Everything is fine. Somebody is not yelling at you from 30 feet in front of you and then two people are coming from behind you to do something, or anything like that.  It’s just a place to relax and play. There’s no disagreements or anything. 

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You don’t have a bunch of planning out, because a lot of time when you do other stuff you have to plan things out and argue and all this stuff.  And when you are on the mats, it works perfectly fine. You just go with it and nothing goes wrong.

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 I like playing with Eleanor because it’s just fun, I guess.  It really takes my emotions away from everything else and I just concentrate directly on playing.  It’s just really fun!

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Playing with Eleanor makes me feel I’m special.  I can do whatever I feel like.  It helps with my temper because I usually get really mad whenever anyone does things to me or I do things to them that they get upset about.  It helps my temper a lot.  (has played with Eleanor for over 4 years)

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 Playing helps with physical strength and courage and shows me how to do things without hurting others. Feeling like its just OK to apologize as nothing really bad happened.