What is Child Play Therapy?
Child Play Therapy is the name given for counselling therapy for children from as young as 3 years old up to and including teenage years. We provide Child Play Therapy in our Dublin centres at Donnybrook, Dublin 4 and also at Wicklow Street, Dublin 2. Sometimes children experience difficulties and behave in ways that may cause disruption to their lives or be of concern to those around them. Play Therapy provides a child with an opportunity to “play out” their thoughts, feelings and problems just as, in certain types of adult therapy, an individual “talks out” their difficulties.
There is a fundamental difference between the child’s play in other situations and their play in Play Therapy. The structure and quality of the relationship between the play therapist and the child provides opportunities for therapeutic healing and repair. This transforms the play to Play Therapy. The play therapist in an informed container of the child’s therapeutic work providing a unique understanding of the child’s inner world.
Play Therapy uses the therapeutic powers of play to help children achieve optimal growth and development, and to prevent or resolve a range of developmental and/or emotional difficulties. It promotes resiliency and assists children to develop holistically and increase emotional intelligence. Play therapists also utilise play as a means of preventing or treating psychosocial disorders, and to help children overcome issues for example those associated with ADHD, sensory processing, ASD, dyspraxia, speech and language, or any type of learning difficulty.
Who is Child Play Therapy for?
Any child can benefit from Child Play Therapy. It promotes self-confidence, imagination, creativity, concentration, communication, problem-solving skills, self-esteem and, most importantly, happiness in the child.
Child Play Therapy is suitable for children as young as two to three years old and there is no upper age limit.
Child Play therapists who are also psychotherapists may use creative and play based approaches with adult and adolescent clients also.
Child Play Therapy is a useful intervention for all children as it facilitates them in making sense of the world, reaching their potential and developing resilience and emotional intelligence.
