What is play therapy?

We all express our needs and make sense of our experiences in our most comfortable language. For children, this language is often play.

As they grow up, many children have difficult experiences which can lead to them feeling unsettled or distressed. In play therapy, we support children to notice and understand their feelings and to communicate something of their experiences using toys, movement and art. Play therapists witness, validate and contain difficult feelings allowing children to better understand themselves and to feel better understood by those around them.

Children are helped to move towards mastering things that worry and upset them and developing their skills, abilities and identities. Every child is special and play therapy can help to shine a light on their unique qualities and help them develop a positive sense of self.

Play Therapy is a non-directive approach to child therapy. This means the child sets the pace and decides what they play and say within their sessions.

Children come for 50 minute sessions while their parent/carer waits for them close by, or has their own support session. In the playroom there are a combination of art and craft materials, dressing up props, sand and water, messy play, small figures and animals, musical instruments and puppets. The child will use these resources to express themselves without having to provide verbal explanations.

As there are limited after school sessions available, play therapy often takes place during school time. Children manage to integrate sessions into their week without too much difficulty. Schools are usually supportive of this and it does not effect the child’s attendance record.

Who is play therapy for?

Play therapy is a suitable intervention for most childhood difficulties. We tend to work with children aged around 4-11 years. Play therapy can be effective in supporting children who experience difficulty with:

• managing feelings like anger or sadness

• stress and anxiety

• attention and learning

• low self esteem

• loss or bereavement

• family or care relationships

• friendships or peer relationships including bullying

• neurodevelopmental difference including autism and adhd

• acute trauma (one very frightening and distressing event or experience)

• developmental trauma (abuse, neglect or repeated frightening or distressing experiences that inhibit aspects of development)

Confidentiality and communication

It is important for the child to know that the play therapy room is a private space for them to play and say whatever they want. Children are told that their therapist won’t tell anyone what they play or say without their permission - unless they are worried that the child or someone else is being harmed. Play therapy is more effective if the therapists share some of what they understand about the child with their parents/carers and if the parents/carers are willing to make changes in their approach as well. On this basis, play therapists have regular review sessions with parents in which (with the child’s agreement) they discuss themes of play and ideas about their difficulties. Therapists ask for feedback about the experience of play therapy from the child and parents and about how they think therapy is progressing before an agreement is reached about how to proceed.