What is play therapy?
Child-Centred Play Therapy gives children a way to communicate and explore what is happening for them through play, particularly when words are difficult to find.
In the playroom, children can use toys, games, art, movement or conversation, choosing the ways of expressing themselves that feel most natural to them.
The child leads the way.
In play therapy, I don’t set goals around changing a child’s behaviour or expect them to talk about things before they are ready. I follow what they bring into the room through play, stories, drawing, movement or conversation, and work with what begins to emerge.
Children will often show me through play what can be difficult to explain in words. Themes may appear around loss, change, relationships, safety or control, sometimes returning again and again in different ways.
The aim is not to change who the child is, but to offer a consistent, accepting relationship in which they can begin to understand themselves and their experiences differently. From that place of greater safety and understanding, shifts can happen naturally in how they feel, relate and respond to the world around them.
“Birds fly, fish swim, and children play”
— Garry L. Landreth, The Art of the Relationship