Why Play?
Play is essential to human growth, development, learning and cultivating relationships.
Play is a natural process that:
- Builds trust and mastery
- Fosters learning and acceptable behaviors
- Regulates emotions
- Reduces anxieties
- Promotes creative thinking and problem solving
- Encourages open communication
- Elevates spirit and self-esteem
Play is our fist language. Just as adults use words to communicate, children use play. When playing, we express thoughts and feelings that might otherwise remain hidden.
What is Play Therapy?
Play Therapy was developed at the turn of the 19th century. Today it refers to a large number of treatment methods, all applying the therapeutic benefits of play. Play therapy differs from regular play in that the therapist helps children to address and resolve their own problems. It builds on the natural way that children learn about themselves and their relationships in the world around them. Through play therapy, children learn to communicate with others, express feelings, modify behavior, develop problem-solving skills, and learn a variety of ways of relating to others. Play provides a safe psychological distance from their problems and allows expression of thoughts and feelings appropriate to their development
How does Play Therapy work?
Play therapy allows trained mental health practitioners who specialize in play therapy, to assess and understand children’s play. Further, play therapy is utilized to help children cope with difficult emotions and find solutions to problems. By confronting problems in a clinical Play Therapy setting, children find healthier solutions. It allows children to change the way they think about, feel toward, and resolve their concerns. Even the most troubling problems can be confronted in play therapy and lasting resolutions can be discovered, rehearsed, mastered and adapted into lifelong strategies.