What is Play Therapy? Play therapy is the systematic process of using play and play materials to work with and help children with emotional and behavioral concerns. It is the ideal therapeutic model for children dealing with divorce, death, anxiety, trauma, anger, difficult life transitions, and other situations that cause stress or emotional pain. Children are small; the world and life’s problems can be very big.  When using play materials, children are in charge and they are in their natural...

This is such an important question because the field has overemphasized the child’s process and has not emphasized the therapist’s process enough or the roll the therapist plays in the child’s healing. I tell my students all the time, “you are the most important toy in the playroom.” And it’s true, because at the end of the day it’s the relationship between the child and the therapist that ultimately is the healing agent in the room. Science has revealed that...

Sometimes parents or professionals who are unfamiliar with Play Therapy wonder how therapy that consists of play can actively address child behavior problems, strong emotions, trauma, and relationship issues that children and their families enter therapy to address. After all, children play with toys most places they go, and yet the problems persist. Today I’d like to shine a light on how Play Therapy differs from general child’s play to provide effective therapeutic results for children and their families. 1. CHILD...