Child-Centered Play Therapy
Play is the child’s work. It is the way they work on understanding their feelings, their relationships, and their problems.
“Play therapy is based on the fact that play is the child’s natural medium of self-expression. It is an opportunity which is given to the child to ‘play out’ his feelings and problems just as, in certain types of adult therapy, an individual ‘talks out’ his difficulty.”
- Virginia Axline, 1947.
It is a basic need for all of us to be listen to. To be understood. But sometimes we don’t feel this need is being fulfilled.
For children it is even more important to be listened to as they are reliant on those around them to survive.
All children have a needs-based ‘language’, but importantly, they most often communicate emotional distress through behaviour. For example, babies cry when they need attention, different cries often mean different needs. This is also true for older children and sometimes the behaviour can be seen as being difficult, unwanted or dangerous to the child’s wellbeing and those close to the child.
A lot of ‘concerning’ or ‘difficult’ behaviour happens because children are having trouble understanding or processing events around them. The world is a confusing place for a child, and they need a way to learn how it works. This is what play is for. Through play, children test ideas about how the world works and seek to understand their place in the events around them. Play is the language of the child and toys are the words.
A child centered play therapist is trained to ‘listen’ to the child’s play, to truly ‘be’ with the child in his or her world.
More importantly, a child centered play therapist provides a trusting environment so that the child feels completely safe to express his/her thoughts and fears, and creates confidence in the child they are being heard. This sense of safety and thrust is essential to the process of emotional growth and therapeutic change.
