Play therapy helps children to make sense of, or process, their experiences. It helps facilitate healing and enables them to develop new patterns of thinking and ultimately new behaviours.
Play therapy helps children develop resilience and coping methods that they can transfer to other areas of their life and new experiences.
In the sessions children can express themselves how they choose, integrating their experiences into their play and can revisit, replay or rework these experiences or project how they may wish things to be until they can understand themselves and their experiences at a deeper level.
As a therapist, Elaine meets and accept each child where they are at in their life. There are no expectations of how they should be or if they are the same as other children their age. In the playroom the child can be exactly who they need to be at that given moment and it is Elaine’s role to create a warm and welcoming environment, where they can simply be themselves.
Benefits children can gain from play therapy include:
- Reduced anxiety, especially around traumatic events
- Increased self-esteem and self-awareness
- Enhanced confidence and competence
- Increased ability to form positive and healthy relationships
- Improved trust both in themselves and others
- Increased creativity and a desire to play
- Deeper understanding of their emotional responses and increased emotional regulation
- A better understanding of their past to allow more future resilience
- Improved relationships with family and friends