What is Play Therapy?
Play is a way for your child to be engaged in the therapy process. Play is how children learn. You may have seen your child playing and they appear to be practicing behaviors they will use later in life. They may play “house,” or talk on the phone, play cops and robbers, etc. All these experiences are teaching them how to grow up. What the therapists do is use the child’s play to teach them new skills.
What age group does Play Therapy work with?
While many people think that play is exclusively for pre-school to elementary school children, older children and adolescents can often benefit from play. Sometimes a child is traumatized at a young age. They can get “stuck” at that age if they do not receive therapy. You may know a 15 year-old adolescent who acts like a 7 year-old, because they had a difficult experience at that age. Play therapy may be appropriate for that child because they are still 7 on the inside. Other times that play is appropriate is when the child is “shut down” or has difficulty talking about emotions or issues. Play is non-threatening and children are able to open up.
Directive and Non-Directive Play
There are two types of play therapy techniques—directive and non-directive. Directive play usually includes the therapist giving directions to the child and dictating the game that they will play. Directive play helps to specifically target an issue during the session. The issue may be focusing, talking about grief and loss, discussing anger. Non-directive play has the therapist allowing the child to play with art, toys, or with figurines in a sand tray. Non-directive play is often used for those children who are young and/or have difficulty talking about their feelings. Non-directive play is successful because the child knows inside what they need to work on and they are able to “play it out” until the issue is resolved. Therapists help the child with their play by using reflective speech. Reflective speech involves the therapist acknowledging what the child is doing and what they may be feeling. This helps children build a “feeling vocabulary,” feel empowered, and feel that the therapist really understands them. Therapists include both the child and the family in the play therapy process. They may teach parents directive and non-directive techniques and teach reflective speech. Play therapy can help address many types of issues, including depression, anxiety, grief and loss, stress, conflict, anger and other life issues.
Why does my child play board/card games with the therapist?
Playing games such as Uno, Mancala, Connect Four can be therapeutic. Children get to experience lots of pro-social behaviors in real time. They can work on playing fair, telling the truth, focusing, impulse control, anger and frustration management and other skills while playing a game. Games also allow children to open up and talk about issues while their hands and minds are busy. This lets them feel more comfortable which allows for better results in therapy.
Parent-Child Center is proud to announce our 30th anniversary serving all of Palm Beach County’s mental health needs. For more information about therapy or to start mental health services, please contact Parent-Child Center, 561-841-3500 X 1038, Luisa Sanchez. If you have a suggestion for future Mental Health Minutes, please contact Marla Berger at mberger@gocpg.org.