At Memorial Child and Family Therapy we utilize play therapy as the primary mode of therapy for children under 8 years old. We are all either registered as play therapists or are working towards becoming registered play therapists. This is a rigorous process of training and supervision to utilize play in clinically and developmentally appropriate ways.
Why Play Therapy?
There is much research and new understandings of brain development in children and their ability to access deeper areas of the brain in th erapy which has changed the way therapy is approached for children. Children do not process emotions through talking it out in the same way adults do. Children utilize play to work through confusing, problematic or traumatic situations much like how adults can talk through problems and work them out.
What is Play Therapy?
When someone mentions “play therapy” , parents often wonder what this term means. The Association for Play Therapy defines play therapy as “the systematic use of a theoretical model to establish an interpersonal process wherein trained play therapists use the therapeutic powers of play to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth and development.”
“Play is to a child what talk therapy is to an adult.”-Dr. Gary Landreth
Children exist in an adult world where there is little in their control. In the process of play, children get to control their worlds and resolve emotional or psychological challenges presented to them. They get to control the world of play and therefore become active participants in their growth and change.
For more about play therapy, click here.
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Memorial Child and Family Therapy 