Our Story

Lemon Drops Kids Therapy was created in response to a lack of local services that offered a person-centred, relationship based, therapeutic approach to the holistic mental health care of children, young people and their families. 

Lemon Drops founder, Julia Firth started offering therapeutic services as a sole practitioner in the first year of the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020. Community demand was overwhelming as children, young people and their families struggled with their existing challenges; including trauma, neurodiversity, attachment and relational issues and developmental delays while feeling the personal and systemic stressors that arose from the pandemic. 

Many therapists came on board and the Lemon Drops team grew to meet the mental, emotional, social and behavioural needs of the community. However, there was one aspect that continually presented as an obstacle for so many…financial! 

While the vision of Lemon Drops was to deliver therapeutic services to all families that needed it, the truth was that many families were going without support because they did not meet the criteria for government or 3rd party funding and the cost of living continued to rise. Lemon Drops staff anguished over this and needed to find another way to overcome the financial barriers that prevent access to mental health support. 

The Not-For-Profit branch of Lemon Drops Kids Therapy was developed and titled Lemon Drops Family Support. Its aim is to create a financial safety net to catch the families who cannot afford the therapeutic services and programs that their children need. 

Lemon Drops Family Support is newly created and in its infancy. Its inaugural fundraiser “The Lemon Drops Comedy Fundraiser” was held on the 12 July 2024 and raised the start up funds needed to employ a professional Grant Writer to apply for tenders that will subsidise the cost of therapeutic services for families in need. 

The Lemon Drops team are deeply hopeful that the Not-For-Profit will flourish with the support of community donations, corporate sponsors, philanthropists and all levels of government to provide heartfelt, empathic and attuned mental health care to children, young people and their families in our local community.