Play & Creative Arts Therapy
Metaphor allows children to project their inner world in a safe and creative way
What is Play Therapy
Play therapy is the most developmentally appropriate method of enabling children to express their feelings. Instead of making a child explain how they feel verbally, through play and expressive arts the therapist enters the emotional world of the child and supports the process of recovery.
Play Therapy is an established discipline based upon psychological theories.
https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/carl-rogers.html
https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/virginia-axline.html
https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/attachment
https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/neuroplasticity
Developmentally, children are unable to perceive and process their thoughts and feelings through words, the way adults do. Play is a child’s language of expression; in Play Therapy, the children’s ‘words’ are the toys and art media.
A therapeutic, non- judgemental environment is a place where a child feels safe, accepted, and free to be, who they want to be.
During a Play Therapy session, a child is given the freedom to choose what toys, art media or materials are the best for them to meet their unique emotional needs and to express them in the most natural way.
'Play is the child’s symbolic language of self-expression and can reveal; what the child has experienced; reactions to what was experienced; feelings about what was experienced; what the child wishes, wants, or needs; and the child’s perception of self.”
-Garry L. Landreth, Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship
The media of Play Therapy include:
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Toys
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Dramatic role play
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Music
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Art
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Clay
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Sand and water
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Therapeutic stories
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Puppets
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Constructing things
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Natural materials such as sea shells, twigs, stones, plants etc.
Who is it for:
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Children age 3 – 14
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Individual Sessions
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Group Sessions
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Siblings
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Families - Filial PlayTherapy
If your son or daughter....
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Is having a hard time coping with separation or divorce
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Is having difficulties to cope with the new Physical (social) Distancing regulations
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Is not reaching his/her full social or academic potential
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Is continually unhappy, withdrawn, quiet
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Is misbehaving, gets involved in playground fights or often argues with peers/siblings/parents/teachers
Perhaps...
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You think he/she suffers from ADD/ADHD or has been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD
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Is at risk of being excluded from school
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Has suffered trauma of any kind
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Has suffered emotional, physical or sexual abuse
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Is (or in the process of being) adopted or fostered
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Suffers because of separated, divorced parents
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Suffers from stress, anxiety or phobias
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Has suffered a loss or bereavement of any kind
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Deals with terminal illness of a family member
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Is hospitalised
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Is ill, disabled, or diagnosed with autism
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Finds it difficult to make friends
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Bullies or is being bullied
What happens in the play therapy session
Recovery from difficult life experiences is facilitated by a Play Therapist. A therapeutic, non-judgemental environment is a place where a child feels safe, accepted, and free to be who he wants to be. Conventional, more directive, talking therapies are often inappropriate for children and young people as they struggle to describe their feeling in words.
Children learn, communicate and explore their inner world through metaphor, which is the language of play. They use art media such as: sand, water, clay, painting, drawing, toys, symbolic figurines, music, drawing, drama, stories and constructing things.
In the Play Therapy room children have the opportunity to explore and understand their feelings.
The outcome of Play Therapy sessions is empowering, helps build confidence and self- esteem which enables children to make great progress by coping with difficulties in the real world.
The Play Therapist engages with parents/teachers/doctors/psychologists concerned with the wellbeing of the child. A Strengths and Difficulties Assessment is made, a preliminary number of sessions adequate to the presenting difficulty are established. The number of sessions may change depending on the progression in the therapeutic process.
The Play Therapist offers a confidential space in which personal issues will be explored.
Whatever happens in the therapeutic space remains confidential
Coaching For Parents - Filial Play
Being a parent is not an easy task. Parents sometimes run out of ideas of what to do to improve their relationship with their children. No one teaches us how to be parents. This is a delicate task which is assumed to be a natural thing to do. However, many parents struggle at different stages of their children’s development.
Their patience often wears thin and they become desperate for solutions. They read books and listen to advice from friends and family. This is where Filial Play can help.
Filial Play for parents provides support for parents in nurturing skills. These sessions will show parents how to play in a non-directive way with their children.
The valuable time which parents will spend during Filial Play sessions will improve their relationship with their child.
Parents will receive coaching to improve their interactions with their child and make the bond between them stronger. The idea of Filial Play is that as a parent, under the guidance of the therapist, you become an expert in dealing with your child. When you are ready, you will continue what you learned in your own space and time.
