Play Therapy is defined as:
“…a dynamic interpersonal relationship between a child and a therapist trained in play therapy procedures who provides selected play materials and facilitates the development of a safe relationship for the child to fully express and explore self (feelings, thoughts, experiences and behaviours) through play. It is the child’s natural medium of communication, for optimal growth and development.”
Children are often unable to find words for how they feel. The intensity of their emotions is not matched with sufficient verbal communication skills, so many of their most intense emotions may remain unexpressed. Play is a concrete way for children to express what they cannot say.
In a therapeutic play setting, a child uses toys to show what they cannot say, to express things they would normally feel unable to express. In play therapy children can explore and communicate feelings that they might not be able to find words for. In therapeutic play, the therapist provides a safe place where all of the child’s feelings are permitted.
The Play Therapist’s Tools
Art Therapy
Drawings and paintings can be positive, healing experiences for children, especially where the therapist is convinced that the process of drawing helps children to explore and transform conflicts and crisis into healthy solutions, outlooks and perspective.
This helps the child to work through their problems via art expression. A child who was being bullied in school, described the bully as ‘a snake in the grass’. This drawing helped her to release an image, giving her space to think about her situation.
A child who was being bullied in school, described the bully as ‘a snake in the grass’.
Clay Therapy
Children have asked me where does the clay come from and my answer is simply, ‘from the earth’. Clay was originally molten lava from the core of the earth. When hands make contact with the clay, then what is worrying on the inside can be released as the child’s hands tell the story. Lynne Souter-Anderson, an expert in clay therapy says: ‘If we are playing with clay, we are playing with the earth ….psychologically the prima material is identical with the primal self.’
Clay work can be messy. It provides children with a real outlet for suppressed feelings of anger and rage and at times, sadness. The opportunity to create a mess provides children with a release from having to stay clean.
