Play Therapy
Children do not have the capacity to express difficult feelings or experiences verbally. Adults can talk about sadness, frustration, disappointment, etc. but children cannot. But they can use their play to express themselves. They show us their world through their play. Sadness, anger, isolation, excitement, happiness, and empowerment all show up in their play. As a play therapist I enter their world through the play and experience what they are experiencing. I help the child by:
1) Modeling how to verbally express what I am feeling “Oh no, something scary is about to happen. My body feels so tense right now. I’m afraid.”
2) I keep myself emotionally regulated, I become a regulation anchor, which allows the child to increase their ability to regulate and increase their tolerance for stress.
3) I model more appropriate ways to cope with the stress such as breathing, moving, voicing how I feel, etc. The child learns to process their experiences, increase their self-esteem, and increase their insight into their thoughts and behaviors. All of this increases the child’s ability to deal with difficult experiences much more effectively.