What is Play Therapy?
Play therapy is counseling for
children starting at a young age (when they are verbal) up to around
age 10. My youngest client was 1.5 years old and my oldest was 11. We
use play in counseling because children express themselves in their
play, unlike adults who express themselves verbally.
Imagine
as an adult having a hard day at work, and you go to your counselor and
tell her everything you have had to experience that day. After an hour
of your therapy session, you feel so much better for getting everything
off your chest verbally. Your anxiety has decreased. The same is true
for children in play. When they play, they decrease anxiety and after an
hour of play, feel a lot more relief.
As a play
therapist, we do not watch the children play and interpret what they are
doing. I can imagine a lot of people think that I am constantly
analyzing children by how they act and play. I am sure my friends with
children are paranoid that I am watching their child and evaluating them
all the time. But all kidding aside, as a counselor our main job is to
empower children to express themselves more fully.
The following is the definition of play therapy from the Association for Play Therapy:
"Play
therapy is to children what counseling is to adults. Play therapy uses
play, children's natural medium of expression, to help them
express their feelings more easily through toys instead of words."
In the textbook Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship (2nd ed.), Landreth (2002) defined child-centered play therapy:
A
dynamic interpersonal relationship between a child (or person of any
age) and a therapist trained in play therapy procedures who provides
selected play materials and facilitates the development of a safe
relationship for the child (or person of any age) to fully express and
explore self (feelings, thoughts, experiences, and behaviors) through
play, the child's natural medium of communication, for optimal growth
and development. (p. 16)
I personally, am a
non-directive play therapist which means I do not tell the child what to
play with or how to play with it. The time we spend together is up to
the child and they choose what to play with and even if they want to
include the therapist or not. There are art supplies, aggressive toys,
animal toys, dress-up, puppets, nurturing toys, a play kitchen, a gender
neutral doll house, a sand tray, and other real life toys such as a
doctor kit. My job as the counselor is to help the child express
themselves, encourage safe expression of feelings, and they in turn
learn to increase their self esteem, learn to be creative in solving
problems, learn self control and to accept themselves for who they are.
In
general terms, play therapy occurs in a room full of toys that are
preselected and play therapists believe that children express themselves
more fully in spontaneous play than verbally. I am non-directive in
that when the child enters play therapy for the first time, the
therapist usually tells the child the following: "You can play with all
of the toys in here, in a lot of ways you would like" and counselors
only set limits when the child, counselor or toys are getting hurt." We
set limits only when the child is going to endanger themselves, the
counselor or the toys. It creates a non-judgmental, free place for
children to express themselves fully.
If you would like to learn more about Play Therapy, the following websites provide additional information:
Association for Play Therapy
Center for Play Therapy at the University of North Texas
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