What is Play Therapy?
Play Therapy is largely provided to children between the ages of 4 and 12 to help explore their lives and freely express suppressed thoughts and emotions through play. Therapeutic play takes place in a safe and comfortable environment, where few rules or limitations are imposed, encouraging free expression and allowing the therapist to observe the child’s choices, decisions and play style. Play Therapy is designed to help children explore their thoughts and feelings, through the medium of play, allowing them to make sense of their life experiences and to discover new and more positive ways to solve problems.
Supporting children and teenagers with social and emotional issues
Therapeutic play supports children suffering with social or emotional issues and helps them to learn to communicate better, adapt their behaviour, develop problem-solving skills and relate to others in a positive way. It is appropriate for Children that are experiencing or have experienced difficult circumstances or upsetting events, such as domestic violence, abuse, trauma, anxiety, environmental change, making friends or dealing with low self-esteem and confidence. Additionally, it is commonly used to support with children diagnosed with behavioural conditions such as ADHD and ODD.
Children can express their feelings easier through play
Play therapy responds to the unique developmental needs of a child, who may often express themselves better through play activities than through verbal communication. The child has the freedom to choose from a wide range of activities and creative media from the therapeutic toolkit, allowing the therapist to observe how the child uses these to communicate thoughts and feelings that are not easily expressed in words.
