What is Play Therapy?
What do children love doing the most? Often, we associate play with fun, games and laughter. Play however, goes beyond just “fun”- play is a powerful medium in which children express their creativity, imagination and communicate how they feel. Play therapy is a strong evidence-based and developmentally appropriate tool which enables young children to share their emotions and experiences with adults. In the process of play, children learn how to explore their self, emotions and make sense of their experiences.
In the wise words of Gary L. Landreth, a key figure in play-centred therapy,
“Toys are children’s words and play is their language”.
Through experiences working with young children and youth across diverse settings, I have found that the greatest challenge with therapy for kids is to facilitate engagement. Unlike adults, most young people are still developing their cognitive and language skills. They may not feel like they have the right words to express themselves and say, “I feel scared”, “I miss my mum” or they might be cautious and wary of opening up to someone unfamiliar.
Play to Build Rapport
To enhance engagement, play opens up significant avenues to improve relationship dynamics and facilitate emotional expression in natural and safe ways. Integrating activities involving games, drawing, storytelling, role-playing and imaginary play helps establish a warm and inviting environment for children to learn that they can trust and share openly without being pressured.
Integrating play into therapy allows for:
- Increased trust and motivation to engage
- Fosters a sense of safety and openness
- Encourages greater emotional expression
- Reduces anxiety and resistance
- Stronger therapeutic connection
Using Play to Build Social and Emotional skills
Play-based therapy is also a beneficial way of building up and strengthening a child’s social-emotional skills. By incorporating play techniques into structured interventions, this can facilitate in:
- Emotion recognition
- Connection between thoughts, feelings and behaviours
- Understanding the self and perspective-taking
- Improving problem-solving skills
A game of Uno might teach a child to practice turn-taking or the creation of a feelings puppet may help a child identify and cope with feelings of anger or anxiety. Externalising a child’s emotions through the use of play and storytelling empowers them to explore and manage their challenges in a healthy, expressive way.
Play-based therapy is highly adaptable to individual, community and even school settings. It can be a valuable and meaningful way to establish connection with children and catch their attention in time-sensitive environments. With a play-based approach, the focus is to remain flexible, and focused on our young people’s needs and developmental stage- enabling them to learn and communicate with us in a natural way which fosters greater therapeutic change.
