Finding the words to describe how you feel can be a challenge. Being able to understand and explain emotions can be hard to do. This is where play therapy can be so valuable. It’s a type of therapy where play and art are used by people to express themselves, their feelings and their experiences.
What can play therapy help with?
Play therapy can be used to work through a variety of issues including anxiety, low mood and depression, bereavement and trauma. It can also be appropriate for those who have ASD or ADHD.
Play therapy can be particularly helpful for both children and young people, especially if they find it hard to express their feelings verbally. They might not recognise what it is they find difficult or know why they’re behaving in a certain way. Play therapy provides a safe, confidential space where children can explore and express themselves using their main form of communication: play. Different play and art materials are used creatively within sessions. These include, but are not limited to, sand trays, drawing and painting materials and puppets and miniatures, and can also incorporate music and movement. Working with these materials alongside a qualified play therapist can enable a child or young person to express their feelings and experiences, improve their confidence and self-esteem, and manage stressful situations and process trauma.
In some cases, play therapy can also be helpful for adults, particularly when they struggle to communicate and process their thoughts and feelings. As play therapy is client-centered, it will be different for everyone and is tailored to what works best for the client, whether they are a child, young person or adult.
How play therapy works
Play therapy is one of the most helpful forms of therapy for children. This is because it’s centered around play, a child’s natural form of communication. It is through play that children learn about themselves, the world, social interactions and problem solving. Play offers a child a safe space to explore how things work in the world without the fear of failure or shame because often they are just playing a role.
The next step comes when they take these skills they’ve learnt through play, with the knowledge of what worked well and what didn’t, and begin to apply them to real life situations.
In therapy, children use play as their form of communication, especially with difficult topics such as their own trauma, grief and emotions in general. A child will often struggle to communicate what they are feeling; however, they are able to explore these through play and project their feelings onto toys/characters, offering a more comfortable way to explore how they’re feeling. With the help of the therapist guiding the child through the exploration of those feelings expressed through play, a safe environment is created: one where the child is able to recognise and accept these feelings as being their own and create links to certain aspects of their life where they may have felt a similar way to the character/toy.
Once this link has been made, the child and therapist can begin to work through these feelings together either in play or with creative, therapeutic activities.
Mary’s story
Mary, age 8, was referred to us by her school due to significant trauma in her past including the loss of multiple family members. She was struggling with very low self-esteem and significant anxiety when coming into the school. She had significant separation anxiety from her parents and struggled to do anything without them. She was also experiencing some anxiety around cleanliness, and the need to constantly wash her hands.
Mary presented as extremely shy in the initial play therapy sessions. She lacked confidence and didn’t speak at a lot of the sessions, instead pointing at or shaking her head to indicate an answer. It was vital that the sessions were taken at Mary’s pace and allowed her the time to build up the relationship with the therapist. That would help her feel more settled and confident so she would be able to comfortably explore her thoughts and feelings within the session.Â
Through the non-directive and non-judgmental format of the sessions, it was observed that Mary’s confidence began increasing significantly. She was able to build a strong relationship with the therapist which enabled her to engage well in the therapeutic activities offered.Â
A significant focus on the sessions was put on building Mary’s self-esteem and confidence to help reduce the anxiety she felt when away from her parents. That was done by using both directive and non-directive techniques; at times there were set therapeutic activities and at other times she explored the therapeutic toolkit for herself, deciding what she needed to use at that time. Messy play was slowly introduced to help explore the anxiety around having dirt or mess on her hands.Â
Upon completion of the sessions, there had been a significant reduction in the anxious behaviours Mary had displayed. Within the sessions, it was observed that both her confidence and self-esteem had increased significantly. Her parents had both seen a very positive improvement too. She was no longer displaying anxious behaviours at home or going into school. Her anxiety around cleanliness had also decreased significantly and she no longer had the urge to wash her hands constantly.Â
Being able to go into school without anxiety meant that Mary’s engagement within school improved. She was able to openly explore her feelings around leaving her parents and when these had started. She is now able to identify and manage these feelings using the tools she learnt throughout the therapy sessions. Â
