Mindmate Notes

MindMate Notes Play Therapy Overview Play therapy is a form of creative therapy that helps children to express themselves, explore their thoughts and feelings, and make sense of their life experiences. Play is a natural activity of learning, exploration and communication for children, and so the medium is considered highly effective for helping children to 'play out' what they may find difficult to put into words.

Play therapists will work with children of all ages in a safe and trusting environment to help shift perspectives of difficult experiences and increase self-esteem and confidence. They may work as part of a team or independently, and may suggest a referral for additional professional support as part of therapy. The main aim of a play therapist is to equip children with adaptive behaviours and better coping mechanisms for everyday life. This is to help them develop a more positive view of their place in the world.

Sessions involve a large selection of play materials provided by the play therapist. These resources will consist of toys like small figures and animals, sand and water, musical instruments, dressing up props, puppets, clay, books and art and craft materials. Rather than encouraging the child to use verbal explanations of what is troubling them, the therapist will help them to express difficult thoughts and feelings through the metaphors of play. This will involve using a range of techniques that help children to become aware of what they are feeling and provide opportunities for them to express these. Awareness is an important part of play therapy because without awareness change cannot take place.

What are the benefits of play therapy?

Ultimately, play therapy helps to facilitate healing and the development of new patterns of behaviour and thinking that enables children to be more resilient in everyday life. By helping to free children from negative experiences and feelings that block their learning and development, play therapy allows them to see their world in a more positive light. Some of the specific benefits children can gain from play therapy include:  Reduced anxiety about traumatic events.  Improved confidence and a sense of competence.  Better able to form healthy bonds in relationships.  Improved ability to trust themselves and others.  Enhanced creativity and playfulness. (Taken from www.counselling-directory.org.uk/playtherapy)

1 Play therapists are regulated by The British Association of Play Therapists (BAPT) or Play Therapy UK (PTUK) following several years training.

What can this look like in schools?

Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive and emotional strength. Play is important to healthy brain development. It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them.

Play is integral to the academic environment. It ensures that the school setting attends to the social and emotional development of children as well as their cognitive development.

(Pediatrics Jan 2007 Vol 119, issue 1)

A whole school approach which embraces play throughout the curriculum ensures that children will engage with their learning as well as developing vital social and emotional life skills. Play within the classroom and in the play ground is essential, particularly for those children who live in environments which are not child friendly or who do not have the opportunity to engage in a range of play activities outside school.

Elements of play can be introduced across the curriculum in both primary and secondary schools. Play therapy can have an important impact on classroom management, including relationship development, empathic listening, limit setting and parenting skills.

Helpful approaches in school

Using therapeutic play in the classroom.

Whilst it would be difficult to use play therapy in the classroom, because of the need for confidentiality and a private therapeutic space, aspects of therapeutic play can be integrated.

Play can be used throughout the curriculum to stimulate children’s imaginations. From Nursery, where there may be lots of dressing up clothes and simulated scenes of everyday life, children will play. As children move up the school, these opportunities become harder to find. Children are told to stop playing around, playtimes are cut and the focus is on academic achievement. However, play should still form an important part of every classroom. It is through play that children learn about themselves and the world, social rules and ways of co-operating with others.

Structured games can be helpful in helping children to learn basic skills of listening, sharing, taking turns. Large group games, which often take place in a circle are fun, and a way of engaging disaffected students whilst helping them to gain an understanding of rules. Simple games such as Liar and ‘change places if..’ appeal to young children and adolescents.

Board games and jigsaws enable children to develop manual dexterity and social interaction.

2 Drama and movement which allows young people to try different persona help to develop character and a self of sense.

Group drawing or painting allows a group of children to negotiate what is on the paper.

Blindfold walks around the classroom, or school foster a sense of responsibility and trust.

Group work

Group work can be run with a play therapist and a member of school staff who knows the children. This can help to develop social skills, friendships and target specific difficulties such as anxiety.

1:1 support

Individual children requiring play therapy can be referred to the school counsellor through Guidance and Support meetings or Mindmate Spa. These children and young people will be offered individual confidential sessions with a qualified therapist.

Resources

There are many books and websites offering suggestions for activities which can be used in the classroom. They should be used with care, and young people should not be required to talk about their work unless they are happy to do so.

Favourite Therapeutic Activities for Children, Adolescents and Families: Practitioners share their most effective interventions. Ed Liana Lowenstein MSW (2011) Champion Press

Creative Drama in Groupwork (1986) Sue Jennings. Winslow Press

Art Therapy for Groups. A handbook of Themes, Games and exercises. Marion Liebmann (1986) Routledge

Sandtray Play and Storymaking. Sheila Dorothy Smith (2012) JKP

Windows To Our Children. Violet Oaklander (1978) The Gestalt Journal Press