Our latest blog is by HurstWorks and Wellness34 Practitioner member Katie Sturt, Play Therapist at Special Space Play Therapy. Katie will be part of our next parents event on supporting your child with anxiety on 3rd April alongside Teen Therapist Rachael Martin.
Does your child struggle with anxiety, attending school, low self-esteem or have they experienced loss, bereavement, trauma or a family separation?
Play Therapy can help your child to develop social skills, process and express difficult thoughts and feelings, learn more about themselves and help them regulate emotional responses as well as master new skills.
What is Play Therapy?
Children have the opportunity, during Play Therapy sessions, to ‘play’ out their thoughts and feelings in a safe, confidential space, through the creative ‘toolkit’ and bring these feelings to the surface, get them out in the open, face them, learn to control them, or abandon them. Your child is not judged or criticised but can be fully him or herself, and not have to respond to any demands in the therapy space.
Play Therapy is a non-directive, holistic therapy. Children might struggle to find the words for how they are feeling, or be able to articulate anger, sadness or frustration at their situation or the world around them and the reasons why. Through play they can start to process and further explore these thoughts and feelings, rather than a traditional ‘talking’ therapy.
Allowing Children to be themselves without judgement
Non-directive Play Therapy grants children the permission to be themselves. The Play Therapist accepts that self completely without being judged and under any pressure to be different or change and the child is given the opportunity to play out accumulated feelings of tension, frustration, insecurity, aggression, fear, bewilderment, and confusion.
During Play Therapy when the child decides how to use the session, the unconscious processes will often take over. An awareness of the unconscious and symbolism may help the therapist get beneath the surface of the sessions and understand a little more clearly what is happening.
Evidence from Play Therapy U.K. suggests that 77% and 84% of children who are referred for Play Therapy improve as a result of the intervention.
Katie Sturt
Play Therapist at Special Space Play Therapy and Special Educational Needs Case Lead for an Alternative Provision, an independent education provider approved by the Local Authority.
Contact: 0773 4841167
Website: https://www.special-space.co.uk/
