Play Therapy: What is it and is it right for my child?

Isabelle Wangerin

Why play?

Play therapy utilizes a child’s play as an avenue towards healing. All parents and caretakers know through observation that children naturally express themselves in play whether they are playing independently or with another person. During play, parents and caretakers can watch children dive deep into imaginative worlds, challenge themselves to learn new skills, or even mimic adult’s behavior around the house. That’s because play is children’s natural language. They process information and communicate their inner thoughts and behaviors through play. If children would want to draw us a diagram of their inner world, then play would be the paper and toys would be their crayons.

The American Play Therapy Association describes children’s play as having many natural benefits, “Play builds trust and mastery, fosters learning and acceptable behaviors, regulates emotions, reduces anxiety, promotes creative thinking and problem solving, encourages open communication, and elevates self-esteem.” Therapists utilize play therapy to draw out the natural healing properties of a child’s play.

What makes play into therapy?

Play becomes play therapy under the guidance of a mental health counselor trained in play therapy. Play therapy is different from everyday spontaneous play because it involves a systematic approach that incorporates a growing number of evidence-based practices and techniques. For a more in-depth look at how every day play is transformed into play therapy by licensed mental health professionals, take a look at this resource: Child’s Play: How Play Therapy Works | Psychology Today

Is play therapy right for my child?

Play therapy is unique in that it creates an avenue to meet a child at their developmental stage. As humans, the right side of our brain starts to develop more quickly than the left side of our brain. The right side of our brain is responsible for nonverbal creative side which consists of emotions, imagination, intuition, images, rhythm, and art. The right side of the brain also carries the both load of emotional stress and trauma as well as a strong connection to the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for our fight/flight/freeze/fawn response that activates when there is a physical or emotional threat. The side of our brain that develops more slowly is the left side. The left side is our logical side and is responsible for numbers, words, math equations, linear thinking, speech, and facts. Talk therapy is largely dependent on the left side of our brain due to its ability to logically think and its influence in speech.

Play therapy focuses on and activates the right side of the brain. This allows for a direct connection to the neurological base for the potential hurts or overactivation of emotions and the autonomic nervous system as well as connection to tools of healing like creativity, intuition, and imagination. Because children become fluent in creativity before logic and language, play therapy allows a space for them to utilize their strengths to propel them forward in their healing journey. This then makes play therapy the developmentally “right” choice for any child.

What if my child has Autism or is already a very logical thinker?

Play therapy is still the developmentally appropriate option for your child. Thankfully, there is a lot of space within play therapy to individualize treatment to play to children’s strengths and address their individual needs. For children on the Autism spectrum, there are ways to playfully teach skills for social situations and to aid in sensory processing. For children with old souls and strong logical thinking skills, play can be used in therapeutic board games and books.

Benefits of play therapy

When reviewing the benefits of play therapy, the American Association for Play Therapy states, “Play therapy helps children address cognitive, behavioral, and emotional challenges, and helps children better process their experiences and develop more effective strategies for managing their worlds.” Play therapy is beneficial to children because it allows children to heal using their natural language of play and connects to their strengths.