CHILD-CENTERED PLAY THERAPY
is a developmentally responsive, play-based intervention for young children ages 3 to 12 who are experiencing social, emotional, behavioral and relational challenges. It utilizes play, the natural language of children, and therapeutic relationship to provide a safe, consistent therapeutic environment. A child can experience full acceptance, empathy, and understanding from the counselor and process inner experiences and feelings through play and symbols.
Based on person-centered principles, overarching goal of this approach is to unleash the child’s potential to move toward integration
and self-enhancing ways of being.
In play therapy children use the medium of play to explore themselves, their thoughts and their sense of the world.
Through therapeutic play the child is able to identify, work through and resolve emotional conflicts that are too painful or too difficult to express verbally. By using play materials and ‘pretend’ or ‘imaginative’ scenarios the child is able to comfortably work on their difficulties. The child often works outside conscious awareness and might be unaware that they are in fact resolving conflicts through their play.
That is the power of play.
