There is no doubt about it, all children can benefit from therapy. The difference between children and adults, however, is talk therapy won’t always be the best option for children. Particularly very young children.
Without an elementary grasp of speech and even less of a handle on transferring emotions into language. Talk therapy is lost on most children. Which is why there are so many advantages to play therapy.
All children are different. All children are born into different circumstances and children. Even by the age of two, many have seen and experienced so many things that affect the way they think and feel. Of course, these aren’t always obvious traumas. They are generally not caused from a lack of care or love, it’s just life. Small children are sponges, they take everything in even when we try so hard to protect them.
So who is play therapy for?
It can be for children who have experienced life or family interruptions. Such as parental separation, birth of a new sibling, school and home relocation or more generalised concerns. These general concerns can be things like anxiety, making friends, troubles with impulse control, anger and aggression. And more obvious traumas, including abuse or neglect, family violence, grief and loss, adoption, bullying, illness or repeated hospitalisations, or environmental disasters
Advantages of play therapy
Fundamentally, Play Therapy is to help the child recognise and work through the myriad feelings and thoughts they have inside.
On a basic level, the advantages of play therapy for children who have suffered trauma is in giving the child a safe space. A place where they can explore their feelings and act them out in their very own language, using play.
There are many other advantages of play therapy.
So let’s break down the specific ways play therapy can help all children.
- Children begin to understand their own emotions and learn to regulate them
- After several play therapy sessions, a bond develops between the child and their therapist
- As trust builds children are able to work through trauma and find ways of coping with it
- Children can learn helpful behaviours by acting out emotions in play and communicating with their therapist
- Empathy is developed in children, a vital life skill
- Self-respect, self-control and self-confidence are developed and built upon through play therapy
- Play Therapy is able to address certain difficulties in a child’s life including their own low self-esteem and behavioural problems, and even those that come from outside stressors such as divorce, grief, family conflicts, bullying
- Equips children with their own problem-solving skills
- Teaches them better communication techniques to cope with internal or external stress
- Play therapy helps children become more resilient to upcoming events
- Provides children more confidence and a better understanding of emotions and of applying their own personal coping tactics.
The benefits and advantages of play therapy are expansive and ongoing for children with all sorts of backgrounds.
And while some of the benefits are more specific for more specific needs, the goal is the same across the board for all children. To provide them and their families with the best emotional foundations for a brighter more positive future.
Written by Helen Barrett – Play Therapist
