Play therapy

You, another family member or your school or college may have noticed your child or teenager is sad, disruptive, rebellious, unable to cope or inattentive. You may be concerned about their development and ability to thrive in the school environment. There may be issues with conduct, emotional intelligence, hyperactivity, peer relationships and how they are getting along with family members, friends, teachers, and being able to engage in learning.

Every child is unique, but sometimes they experience problems with feelings or behaviours that cause disruption to their lives and the lives of those around them.

It is normal for parents to wait and see if the problems will pass and therefore delay seeking help because they worry that they will be blamed for their children’s behaviour. These feelings of responsibility for a child’s distress or problems is a normal part of caring. However, taking the time to read this shows a commitment to start to address the difficulty by finding some support for your child. Supporting your child in attending Play and Creative Arts Therapy is a significant part of helping.

Play is absolutely vital to every child’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical, creative and language development. It helps make learning concrete for all children and young people including those who find ‘talking’ verbally too difficult.

The child creates a short-term therapeutic relationship with the therapist and receives emotional support and learns to understand more about their own feelings and thoughts. Within this therapeutic relationship 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 learn strategies to be able to manage conflicts in more appropriate ways.

The outcomes for each child or teenager of Play and Creative Arts Therapy depends on their initial referral and why they have come for therapy. However, most children experience a reduction in anxiety and have raised self-esteem. There may also be a change in behaviour and improved relations with family and friends.

The sessions are child-led so the Play and Creative Arts Therapist will have a large selection of play and creative materials from which the child can choose. These include: a sand tray with 100s of miniature toys to create their own world, art and craft materials, dressing up props, clay, play doh, musical instruments, puppets, masks, books and lego. The Play Therapist will enable the child to use these resources to express him or herself without having to provide verbal explanations.

I have received and continuing to engage in extensive training in subjects such as child development and attachment (the bonding process) and trauma. I am trained to use play and the creative arts as a means for understanding and communicating with children about feelings, thoughts and behaviour.

The therapeutic process starts by meeting with me so that I can listen to the concerns about your child and family. You will complete an SDQ scoring questionnaire about your child and from the initial meeting and scoring I will review the history and find out about the stresses that the family have been through so that I can help the child make sense of it.

I may, with parental/carer permission, ask to seek information from school and other significant adults in their lives. You will then receive, via a secure web platform, an initial assessment of the child’s strengths as well as their difficulties.

I will talk with the parents to tell the child about their Play Therapy and how to anticipate and answer any questions. You can also visit the children’s information page for child friendly wording on www.bapt.info/play-therapy/info-children.

I will work with the child in a cycle of 12 sessions but this depends on the outcome of the initial referral form and meeting. Sessions are usually one hour, once a week and held in the therapist’s private therapy room, school or college, or at a children’s centre or community venue. To assist the child in their therapeutic journey, please try to keep the appointment slot allotted to you each week. The same time and place is very important for developing a trusting relationship. The therapist may charge for any unplanned missed sessions as this may disrupt the progress.

All information that you or the school share about the child and family will usually be kept confidential. I may share information with other colleagues and professionals for the benefit of the child with parental/school permission. I must share information with other professionals if I am concerned that a child is being harmed, hurting others or themselves. I will usually talk to the parents or caregiver about this first.

The therapist will meet with the referrer (parent, caregiver or school) at the mid point of therapy, normally session 6, to discuss progress in therapy sessions and any changes and developments that the parent or school may have witnessed or experienced. However, I will not disclose specific details of what the child has played out This is important in order to maintain the child’s trust and feelings of safety within the therapeutic relationship.