What is Play Therapy?
Written by Casille Kristol, MC, LAC
Get to know that technique! Play therapy
Play therapy is a way of being with the child that honors their unique developmental level and looks for ways of helping in the ‘language of the child – play. Mental health professionals therapeutically use play to help their clients… to better express themselves and resolve their problems.
– Association for Play Therapy
How Does Play Therapy Work?
Play therapy is a structured, theoretically based approach to therapy that builds on the normal communicative and learning processes of children. Play is the child’s language and toys are a child’s words! Play is how therapists can communicate effectively with children and meet them at their level. Children may be referred to therapy with trained mental health practitioners who specialize in play therapy in order to assess, understand and help children cope with difficult emotions and find solutions to problems. By confronting problems in the clinical Play Therapy setting, children find healthier solutions. Play therapy allows children to change the way they think about, feel toward, and resolve their concerns.
Play Therapy can help with:
Global functioning
Disruptive behaviors
Aggression
Attention deficit
Trauma
Anxiety
Attachment
Academic progress
Relationship stress
Self-concept
Internalizing problems
Somatization problems
Development
Social-emotional assets
At Amanda Hope, we offer play therapy as an intervention strategy for warriors and their siblings to cope and manage! Apply for services today!
