What is Play Therapy and how can it help my child?
Child centered-play therapy is a form of psychotherapy used with children. It is a well-researched and effective therapeutic approach that allows children to explore, process, communicate, learn and heal in a developmentally appropriate way. Children don’t usually have the cognitive and verbal abilities to communicate their experiences in the way adults do. Play is considered the natural language of children and that’s why play therapists use play to understand children’s feelings, thoughts and beliefs. You might find it helpful to see toys as words and the play as a unique language that allows for communication. Play might include art, music, working symbolically with miniatures in the sand tray, dance, writing, drama/theatre and more. In play therapy, counsellors may notice recurring patterns and themes that can help understand your child’s emotional world and experience to support them in their healing process.
Play as a way of processing challenges
Children who have gone through stressful and overwhelming experiences may need help processing these experiences. When children’s difficult experiences are not processed, we may notice challenging responses such as anger, anxiety, depression, aggression, withdrawal, fear, etc. Child-centred play therapy can help children process stressful experiences by allowing them to work through their emotions using play. During play, children might re-enact stressful life events to experience a sense of mastery and control over said events. Also, they might symbolically represent their experiences in the playroom until those experiences no longer exert the same emotional toll. Children may understand that they are representing and working through stressful experiences; however, often, processing occurs below the level of awareness. Each child is different, but the basic idea is that children work thought stress and trauma non-verbally, using play.
Play and the therapeutic relationship with a trained therapist
Traumatic and stressful life events often impact children interpersonal experiences such as relational ruptures and attachment trauma. In play therapy, the therapist is a safe, predictable, accepting, attentive, non-judgemental and consistent presence than can provide children with a corrective emotional experience. The therapeutic relationship with the child can provide a counter for challenging relationships they might have experience with other adults. Also, corrective emotional experiences may positively impact a child’s sense of self and security, modifying his perceptions about himself, others and the world.
Play can serve as an outlet
Some children struggle with anger, anxiety hyperactivity and other externalizing behaviours. In play therapy, children can release some of that emotional energy in the safe and contained space of the playroom.
Play allows for experimentation, mastery, and control
During play, children may try out various behaviours and receive appropriate feedback from the therapists. These behaviours might include testing boundaries, but they can also involve gaining mastery over a task that is experienced by the child as daunting. For example, a child who is scared of going to school and being away from the parents may experiment with toys, playing out scenarios where children go to school on their own and overcome challenges during their school day. In this way, the child can gradually increase their sense of comfort and confidence with going to school on their own.
Some of the content has been adapted from "Play Therapy Overview" at Family Services North Shore.