What is play therapy
Play Therapy is a specific counselling approach in which games, toys and mediums such as clay, drawings and paint are used to help a child or adolescent to express their emotions, thoughts, wishes and needs. It helps them to understand muddled feelings and upsetting events that they have not had the chance or the skills to sort out properly. Rather than having to explain what is troubling them, as adult therapy usually expects, children use play to communicate at their own level and at their own pace, without feeling interrogated or threatened.
What happens during play therapy sessions
The initial focus of the therapy is on building a relationship between a child and the therapist. This relationship is a very important tool in the therapeutic process because a child or adolescent will more readily talk about their intimate feelings when they feel respected and accepted. In the sessions the therapist uses specific techniques to assess how a child or adolescent experience their world and how they communicate and react to the events and people in their world. Children are lead to become aware of what they are feeling and opportunities are given to express these feelings. Awareness is a very important process in play therapy, because without awareness change is not possible. Throughout the therapy the child or adolescent is empowered and supported to learn more about who they are, to talk about things that are frightening or painful, to be self supportive and to experiment with new behaviour.
What can be achieved through play therapy?
Play Therapy can be useful for any child of four years and older. It can help to become aware of what feelings and how these feelings manifest in behaviour or one's body. They can learn how to become better at regulating emotions and expressing them in constructive ways. They can discover who they are and what their strong and weak points, needs, wishes, thoughts and dreams are. The combination of this self-knowledge and training in social skills may help a child to become more assertive, self-confident and to have self-respect and respect for others.
When should I bring my child for play therapy?
It is very important that emotional and behavioural problems are dealt with at an early stage. If left untreated these problems may cause a child and his family a great deal of distress. If a child does not understand his behaviour or have control over it, it can cause fear and break down confidence. This can impact on other areas of life, such as the ability to complete tasks and schoolwork, to make friends and to deal with stress.
If you find that your child displays strange, uncharacteristic behaviour (like being aggressive, destructive, withdrawn) after a specific stressful event (like divorce, new school, birth of a sibling, death) and this behaviour lasts for at least two weeks, it probably is time to seek professional help. This behaviour may be an indication that your child is not able to deal with and express what he is experiencing or feeling. Ask your child's teacher, caregiver or a significant adult in his life if they have noticed this behaviour.
Sometimes your child's behaviour may be inappropriate even if there is no specific stressor that you are aware of. Or the cause of the behaviour may be something totally different from that which you have imagined. Or your child may have had problems with regulating emotions from an early age and does not seem to be getting any better. In such cases it is recommended that you speak to a professional who will advise you if it is necessary for you to take your child for therapy.
Research has shown that play therapy can successfully address issues related to:
How long will the therapy last?
This depends on the child's personality, the nature of the bond between the child and the therapist and the nature of the problem. Some children are very shy and need a lot of encouragement to express their feelings and thoughts, while others are quick to talk. Children who have been hurt badly by adults might be apprehensive and might need a long time to trust someone and feel free to talk. Some children have developed clever ways to avoid thinking about their feelings because this is too painful for them and they need time to feel safe to break down their barriers and build courage to deal with their emotions and the painful events in their lives.
In general, a child or adolescent attends therapy for at least six therapy sessions as this usually gives sufficient time to build a relationship of trust and to have time to discover more about feelings and thoughts, to feel free to express them and to start talking about solutions.
Can play therapy be used with adolescents?
Play Therapy is very effective with adolescents. Sessions focus on creative techniques to help adolescents become aware of and understand their feelings and thoughts. An example would be to ask the adolescent to draw a situation, feeling or dream, enact it or model it in clay. Music is often used when building the relationship or for expressing emotion.
Play therapy is an effective aid in assisting adolescents to learn about themselves, clear up their cluttered emotions or thoughts, learn to accept themselves and to become more mature and self-confident.
Play therapy also provides opportunities to experiment with new behaviour in a safe environment, be it in individual therapy or in group therapy. Group work is quite effective for making friends, becoming assertive, and learning skills and coping mechanisms from other teenagers who experience similar problems or challenges.
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