What is Play Therapy?
Play Therapy uses many different methods and treatment theories to help treat a child's problems. It differs from regular play in that children are allowed to address issues while maintaining psychological distance. Through play the therapist is able to help children address and resolve their problems.
Why Play Therapy?
Play for children is natural, creative, and critical to healthy development. In play children practice life skills, communication, cognitive skills, and learn about their environment, fantasy and reality. Guided Play Therapy helps children work through and resolve their concerns in a safe environment.
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How Does Play Therapy Work?
In Play Therapy, trained therapists observe and help children cope with difficult emotions and find solutions to their problems. Play Therapy helps children change the way they think and feel about their problems, and resolve them. Even the most troubling problems can be confronted in Play Therapy. Lasting solutions can be discovered, practiced and adapted into the children's lives.
What Are The Benefits of Play Therapy?
Research shows that Play Therapy is beneficial for children experiencing social, emotional, behavioral, and learning problems. Some of these problems include: post-traumatic stress, conduct disorder, aggression, anxiety/ fearfulness, depression, ADHD, impulsivity, low self-esteem, academic difficulties, parent-child relationships, and social withdrawal. It also helps children going through divorce, death, relocation, hospitalization, chronic illness, physical/sexual abuse, domestic violence, and natural disasters.
Play therapy helps children take responsibility for their behavior, develop solutions to problems, develop respect for themselves and others, experience emotions, be empathetic towards others, and learn new social skills. |
