Play Therapy is a therapeutic approach used to help children with varying need to; process and understand feelings, develop sense of worth, make sense of difficult life experiences, process traumatic events, and find ways to make sense of their experiences. Sessions are carried out within a safe, contained environment

Play is your child’s first and most natural form of communication and crucial to their social, emotional, behavioural, cognitive and physical development.

In therapy, play is a powerful tool for connecting to a child’s trauma, emotional world, thoughts and feelings; alongside a trained therapy professional.

As adults we usually have the capacity to verbalise or discuss our experiences when in need. For children this is harder to do and sometimes they may not even be aware of their own internal state, and day to day struggle to regulate. This can lead to behavioural challenges, shut down, internalising and overwhelm.

Sessions enable children the opportunity to explore through the medium of play, building a trusting relationship with the therapist in order to make connections to their own feelings, express them safely and integrate. In turn creating connection to, allowing processing of and enabling a safe outlet for feelings.

Instead of explaining what is troubling them, sessions allow children to use play to communicate. Resources include art, sand tray, sensory toys, play dough, cars, dolls, figures, bricks and more.