What is Play Therapy?

Play is a child's natural way of communication. Play is vital to every child's social, emotional, cognitive, physical, creative and language development. 

Children can make sense of their own experiences when play is used in a therapeutic way, supported by a play therapist who can support, regulate and keep them safe. 

Play therapy provides children with the opportunity to explore their feelings, express their emotions and make sense of their life experiences through the natural medium of play. 

Children are not able to fully express themselves using verbal language until much later in life, as they do not have the words to do so. Through play therapy the therapist helps build self-awareness and provides an environment for change by verbalising what they see and hear in the session through a process called reflection. 

During weekly sessions, the therapist and the child work together to help the child better understand their emotions  and learn how to support themselves when big feelings arise. Through play therapy children will begin to feel heard and fully seen, and as a result they have the potential to transform. 

 Play enables children to express thoughts, feelings and experiences when they perhaps don't have the words or the confidence to say out loud. For children who have social anxieties or special educational needs, it can be a safe, constructive way to develop essential skills. 

Play therapy helps children develop resilience and coping methods that they can transfer to other areas of their life and new experiences. 

In play therapy sessions children can express themselves how they wish. Sometimes children can re-enact or play out a traumatic or difficult life experience in order to make sense of their past and cope better with their future. 

Children may also learn to manage relationships and conflicts in more appropriate ways.