Play Therapy
What is Play therapy?
​
Child Centred Play Therapy (CCPT) is a therapeutic approach specifically designed to help children express their feelings, experiences and thoughts through play. This method is based on the principles that play is a natural medium of communication.
The Play therapist creates a supportive and non directive atmosphere, allowing the child to lead in play.
The therapist follows the child's lead, reflecting their feelings and actions to help themselves and process their emotions and experiences.
​
​
​
Foundation and Philosophy
​
CCPT is grounded in the principles of attachment theory, neuroscience and humanistic psychology, particularly those of Carl Rogers and Virginia Axline.
It emphasizes the importance of providing a safe, accepting, and understanding environment where children feel free to express themselves.
​
Therapeutic Goals
​
Play therapy is a therapeutic approach primarily used with children to help them express their feelings, process experiences, and develop coping mechanisms through play.
-To help children express their feelings and thoughts in a safe environment.
-To foster self understanding and insight.
-To encourage emotional healing and personal growth.
-To improve social and problem solving skills.
​
What types of toys are used?
​
In CCPT a variety of toys are used to facilitate expression, creativity and emotional processing. The selection of toys is deliberate and designed to support the therapeutic goals. Here are some of the types of toys commonly used and the reason they are chosen:
Creative/Expressive toys:
Art supplies (crayons, felt tips, paints, doughs/ clay); allowing children to express emotion and thoughts through art.
Musical instruments: Enable children to express feelings through sound and rhythm.
Dramatic Play Toys:
Dolls, Puppets and mystical/ imaginative/animal Figurines;
Helps children enact scenarios and express complex feelings, relationships and conflicts.
Dress-up clothes and accessories:
Allows children to explore different roles and identities, facilitating understanding and expression of various aspects of themselves.
Aggressive- release toys:
Toy weapons (swords, guns, tanks, monsters, soldiers ): Provide a safe outlet for children to express anger and aggression.
Punching bags and stress toys: Offer a physical means to release pent-up energy and frustration.
Nurture/ Family Toys:
Dolls houses and family/animal figurines;
Enable children to recreate family dynamics and explore relationships and emotions within a family context.
Baby dolls and caregiving accessories (bottles, blankets); Help children express and work through nurturing and caregiving themes.
Real-Life Toys;
Dolls house Toys, Toy cars, Trucks, helicopters, Aeroplane's: Allow children to re-enact real-life scenarios in story and gain a sense of control over their environment.
Kitchen sets, food toys, feeling books, blankets; Facilitate the expression of daily life activities and associated feelings.
Sensory Toys:
Kinetic/Sand trays, Water beads / tables; Provide a tactile, grounding, calming experience, helping children express emotions and process experiences through sensory play.
Figit, Transformer and Puzzle toys: Assist in regulating emotions and enhancing focus during therapy sessions.
Construction Toy's, Games, Balls:
Building blocks (lego, wooden blocks), Games (joint play). Encourage creativity, relational, problem-solving/ mastery, and the expression of inner experiences through building and construction.
​
Therapeutic Process
These toys are selected to provide a wide range of opportunities for children to express their inner worlds in a safe and supportive environment.
The variety ensures that children with different preferences and needs can find suitable mediums to communicate and work through their issues effectively.
The child chooses how to use the materials, this non directive approach helps children feel respected and accepted , which can enhance self esteem and resilience.
Play therapists are trained to interpret feelings using the theoretical lens of attachment theory, neuroscience and child psychotherapy, they use themes projected in play to understands children's needs.
​
​
​
Play Therapy Themes
​
Play therapist are trained to interpret various themes often emerge in play therapy sessions, reflecting the child's internal world, experiences, and emotional state. Here are some common themes:
Family Dynamics:
Relationships: Children may explore relationships with family members, highlighting attachment issues, sibling rivalry, or parental conflicts.
Roles: They might act out family roles, revealing how they perceive their place within the family structure.
Emotional Expression:
Anger and Aggression: Play involving fighting, destruction, or anger can indicate underlying feelings of frustration or aggression.
Fear and Anxiety: Themes of danger, being chased, or monsters often reflect the child's fears or anxieties.
Loss and Grief:
Death and Separation: Play scenarios involving loss, abandonment, or death can be a way for children to process grief and separation issues.
Control and Power:
Mastery and Control: Children may play out scenarios where they have control or power, especially if they feel powerless in their real lives.
Helplessness: Conversely, themes of helplessness can emerge, reflecting feelings of vulnerability.
Self-Concept:
Identity: Play themes may revolve around self-image, self-esteem, and identity formation.
Competence: Children might engage in activities that showcase their skills or highlight areas where they feel competent or incompetent.
Trauma and Abuse:
Reenactment: Children who have experienced trauma or abuse may reenact these events in their play as a way of processing and making sense of them.
Safety and Protection: Themes of safety, rescue, and protection are common, indicating a need for security.
Social Relationships:
Friendship and Peer Interaction: Play involving friends or social scenarios can reflect the child's social skills, friendships, and peer relationships.
Conflict Resolution: Children may work through social conflicts and problem-solving in their play.
Fantasy and Escape:
Imaginative Play: Engaging in fantasy play can be a way for children to escape reality, explore different possibilities, and express creativity.
Alternate Realities: Creating alternate realities or worlds can indicate a desire to escape from stressors in their actual lives.
Problem-Solving and Coping:
Challenges and Solutions: Children often use play to work through problems and explore coping mechanisms.
Resilience: Themes of overcoming obstacles and resilience can emerge, indicating the child's strength and adaptability.
Moral and Ethical Development:
Good vs. Evil: Scenarios involving good and evil characters can reflect the child's understanding of morality and ethics.
Justice and Fairness: Issues of fairness, justice, and right vs. wrong are often explored in play.
By observing and engaging with these themes, therapists can gain insight into the child's inner world and provide support to help them process emotions, develop coping strategies, and address psychological issues.
​
​
Benefits of Play Therapy
​
Play therapy acts to enable children to have some therapeutic space for exploring and expressing difficult and muddled feelings.
Children find it difficult to attach feelings to words but instead ‘play out’ difficult life experiences and muddled feelings through affect association with toys within Play.
As play is vital to every child's social emotional, cognitive, physical, creative and language development. Play therapy helps make learning concrete for all young people as play is a child's natural medium to communicate and explore their world.
Play therapy helps children in a variety of ways. Children receive emotional support and can learn to understand more about their own feelings and thoughts. Sometimes they may re-enact or play out traumatic or difficult life experiences' in order to make sense of their past and cope better with their future. Children may also learn to manage relationships and conflicts in more appropriate ways by using the play space and therapeutic relationship to test out experiences and different ways of being.
Ultimately CCPT helps children to work through their issues in a developmentally appropriate manner, providing them with the tools and support they need to grow.
​
When and Where
​
​ Play therapy takes place at children's schools, community centre or another neutral safe space, it happens every week at the same time and in the same room. This is important for developing the trusting relationship.
​
​
About me
Hi My name is Eva and I am a BAPT registered Play therapist, Filial therapist and Therapeutic Life Story worker.
​
What is a BAPT Play therapist
​
A BAPT registered Play therapist is a professional who has completed an intensive training to Masters level that has been accredited by the British Association of Play Therapists. All BAPT Play therapist have extensive prior work experience with children in mental, physical or teaching and a core under graduate degree to reflect this.
BAPT is part of the Professional Standards Agency requiring all members to have accountable Continued Professional Development, Professional Insurance and Enhanced DBS checks.
​
Having qualified in 2014 from Roehampton university. I have worked for many London based Local Authority teams in social care including children on both child protection plans and child in need plans Fostering and Post-Adoption.
My career started 20 years ago evolving from supporting vulnerable street homeless adults, sadly the many of these adults had experienced troubled childhoods and i was beginning to see revolving patterns of destructive behaviours i could only put down to intergeneration trauma patterns and attachment difficulties.
This propelled me into working with children and family with multiple and complex needs. These were often vulnerable families struggling on the edge of care proceedings.
Training in Play therapy was a natural progression from this role as I saw how key it is to invest therapeutically in children to hault intergenerational trauma.
Later I trained in Filial therapy which is based on relational therapy with parents/ carers in order to strengthen relationships and help re-establish trust.
Therapeutic life story work is something i trained in as it felt like a such a necessary part of therapy with LAC children as these children need support to make sense and peace with such complex early beginnings in order to go on to live settled and fulfilled lives.
Service Subitle
Filial therapy is a type of therapeutic intervention that involves training parents to conduct play therapy sessions with their own children. It is based on the principles of child-centered play therapy and emphasizes the importance of the parent-child relationship in the therapeutic process. Here are the key elements of filial therapy:
Parent Training: Parents are trained by a therapist in basic play therapy techniques. This training includes understanding the child's behavior, learning how to use therapeutic play techniques, and developing skills to create a supportive and nurturing environment during play sessions.
Play Sessions: After the training, parents conduct regular play sessions with their children. These sessions are typically structured and follow a specific protocol taught by the therapist. The play sessions are usually non-directive, allowing the child to lead the play and express their feelings and thoughts freely.
Therapist Support: Throughout the process, the therapist provides ongoing support and supervision to the parents. This support can include feedback on the play sessions, addressing any difficulties the parents may encounter, and helping parents understand and respond to their child's needs and behaviors effectively.
Strengthening Parent-Child Relationship: The primary goal of filial therapy is to strengthen the emotional bond between parent and child. By engaging in therapeutic play, parents can better understand their child's emotional world, improve their communication, and address behavioral and emotional issues within the context of a supportive relationship.
Empowerment and Skill-Building: Filial therapy empowers parents by giving them the tools and confidence to support their child's emotional and psychological development. It also enhances parents' skills in empathy, listening, and responding to their child's needs.
Filial therapy is often used to address a variety of issues, including behavioral problems, emotional difficulties, family relationship issues, and trauma. It is especially beneficial in helping children express their emotions and experiences in a safe and supportive environment facilitated by their own parents.
Quality Care
Therapeutic Life Story work sessions
Richard Rose's Therapeutic Life Story Work (TLSW) is an intervention designed to help children and young people make sense of their past experiences, understand their present situation, and create a positive narrative for their future. This approach is particularly beneficial for children who have experienced trauma, abuse, or neglect, often those in foster care or adoptive placements.
Here are some key components of Richard Rose's TLSW:
Creating a Safe Space: Establishing a safe, trusting environment where the child feels comfortable sharing their experiences and emotions.
Narrative Building: Helping the child construct a coherent narrative of their life, which includes understanding their family history, significant events, and the impact of these experiences on their current behavior and feelings.
Therapeutic Techniques: Utilizing various therapeutic techniques, such as storytelling, art, play, and other creative methods, to help the child express their feelings and experiences.
Understanding and Integration: Assisting the child in making sense of their past, integrating their experiences, and understanding the reasons behind their behavior and emotions. This helps in reducing confusion, anger, and distress associated with past traumas.
Future Planning: Empowering the child to think about their future, set goals, and develop a positive sense of self and identity. This includes fostering resilience and coping strategies.
Collaboration: Involving caregivers, social workers, and other professionals in the process to ensure a supportive network around the child.
Richard Rose's approach emphasizes the importance of understanding the child's life story as a means of healing and growth, providing them with a sense of continuity and stability. It is a structured yet flexible approach, tailored to the individual needs of each child.
A Happier, Healthier You
Child Play Therapy Session
Here For You
Child Social Skills Program
Quality Care
Contact me
Currently availability throughout Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch for school based sessions.Â
Registered and currently contracting with BCP social care and Aspire adoption service aswell as holding private practicce cases.
Nathaniel Lambert-Father
Play therapy with Eva was a great gift for our son, Eva and the trust they formed gave him a wonderfully nurturing relationship and space to work through a complex family trauma in the developmentally right environment. He is now confident and settled in secondary school.