Play Therapy
“Play is a medium for expressing feelings, exploring relationships and self-fulfillment.”
-Gary Landreth, Ed.D., LPC, RPT-S
Early childhood development experts will tell you that play is the way that children learn best, and this applies to therapy as well. Play provides children with an opportunity to learn about themselves and their world, as well as how to face problems and come up with solutions. Play therapy is a powerful tool for helping clients process their experiences and develop more effective strategies for managing their emotions. Play is also a natural way to build trust, reduce anxiety, improve communication and improve mood and self-esteem.
“Mindfulness based, existential and spontaneous child-centered play therapy methods stimulate implicit nonverbal early experience, and offer affective healing in a way that left brain therapies may not.” -Allan Schore
Child Centered Play Therapy
Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is the most well-researched and validated of all the types of play therapies and has been proven to be the most effective approach for working with children of all ages, abilities, and concerns.
In the playroom, the child gets to decide what to play with and how to play with it. The child leads the play, thereby leading the direction they need to go to feel better and to heal. CCPT helps children learn how to understand and identify their emotions and become better at communicating their experiences and coping with their emotions.
“In Play Therapy, the most troubling problems can be confronted and lasting resolutions can be discovered, rehearsed, mastered and become lifelong strategies.”
~Sandra Russ, Ph.D.
Child Parent Relationship Training
Parents and children have the best success at meeting their goals when they combine Child Centered Play Therapy with Child Parent Relationship Training. This parallel program allows the therapist to transfer play therapy skills to parents to use at home. When parents apply these same skills to their everyday interactions with their children, they become more in tune with their children’s experiences and emotions and are able to improve their relationships with their children as a result.
Lindsay meets with play therapy children’s parents, guardians and interested family members once a month in order to teach Child Parent Relationship Training.
Lindsay MacGeorge, RPT-S is certified in both approaches and would be happy to talk with you more or to answer any questions you may have!
Association for Play Therapy’s Parent Corner
If you are a parent and looking for more information about play therapy, the Association for Play Therapy has a Parent’s Corner will lots of great information, articles and resources. Check it out here: Parents Corner - Association for Play Therapy (a4pt.org).
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."
- George Bernard Shaw