Play Therapy and Child Counselling

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Children don’t experience or talk about their feelings in the same way that adults do. Grown ups attend therapy, traditionally talk based models, and will sit and talk about what is worrying them until they are able to integrate and make meaning of their experiences. However, children, particularly young children, are still learning how to understand their emotions and put them into words, and being asked to "talk about their feelings" by a stranger, no matter hoe well intentioned, can be experienced as uncomfortable and overwhelming.

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Play therapy and counselling for children works best when the therapist offers therapy in a format that fits with how children naturally communicate and learn. Play is how children express themselves, make sense of their experiences, and show us what’s going on in their inner world. Through play, drawing, stories, sand tray and creative activities, children can safely express feelings they may not yet have the words for.

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Children often show emotional distress through behaviour rather than conversation. Worries, big emotions, or stressful experiences may look like tantrums, withdrawal, sleep difficulties, school refusal, or changes in mood and behaviour. Play-based counselling gives children a gentle and safe way to work through these challenges without pressure or expectations to explain everything.

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In a warm and supportive therapeutic space, children are able to explore their feelings at their own pace. Over time, they begin to feel more understood, learn how to calm their bodies, manage big emotions, and develop healthier ways of coping and relating to others.

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Parent involvement is an important part of the process. Parents and caregivers are supported to better understand their child’s emotional needs and are given practical strategies to use at home, helping changes made in therapy carry into everyday life.

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Helpful for children and families experiencing:

 

∗ Trauma

∗ Grief & loss.

∗ Bonding & Attachment issues.

∗ Foster care and Kinship care

∗ Prenatal & Birth

∗ Chronic illness / hospitalization / medical trauma.

∗ Adjusting to family changes such as separation and divorce.

∗ Making friends.

∗ Emotional regulation - expressing anger, fear, sadness, worry & shyness.

∗ Aggression & acting out.

∗ School difficulties, including anxiety, sensory overwhelm and school can't.

∗ Neurodiversity - ADHD, ADHD, Gifted, Sensory Processing Challenges.

∗ Self concept & self esteem.

∗ Selective Mutism.