Why Play Therapy Might Be Right for Your Family

If you’re here, you’re likely worried about your child. Maybe things are hard at home, or school, and knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. Play therapy is one thing you’re exploring, but how do you know if it’s what you need?

While the play therapy experience is highly personalized and looks different for each child, there are many benefits that are consistent from family to family. Here are some reasons people choose play therapy with Children’s Way Counseling:

Talking to your child doesn’t seem to help.

Something is bothering your child. Maybe you think you know what it is, like a divorce or a move. Or maybe you have no idea; it’s an anxiety that has seemingly come out of nowhere. But SOMETHING is wrong and despite being insightful and caring, your words seem to fall flat. You ask your child what’s wrong (or why they hit a child at school AGAIN) and they tell you they don’t know. Their refusal to talk to you about what’s bothering them has you confused and worried.

The good news is that it’s developmentally very normal for a child to have difficulty processing their feelings verbally. Children are emotional creatures who live in the moment, and talking isn’t always the best way to connect with them. However, through play, your child is able to access the parts of their brain where big feelings come from and begin to understand them. And in child-centered play therapy, the child is the one in charge of exploring their emotions. By playing, they show the adult what is bothering them…even if they don’t say a word. Your trained play therapist can help you, as their parent, understand this while also supporting your child’s processing through play.

Big feelings are causing problems in your home (or at school, or the playground…)

We all have big feelings, but they aren’t always proportionate to stress. (Just picture road rage or the last time your SEC team lost due to a bad call.) Sometimes we forget that children might not even understand what their painful emotions ARE. Are they angry? Embarrassed? Hungry? As adults, we just see the tantrums or the inability to follow directions and the frustration these behaviors cause.

Before we can expect a child to manage their behaviors, we need to help them understand what they’re experiencing emotionally. Play therapy helps them do just that. They learn emotional insight and vocabulary that helps them recognize and voice their needs outside of the playroom so they don’t resort to those challenging behaviors in order to solve their problems. When children gain this understanding, behaviors often become more manageable in all environments.

Your child needs a boost of confidence.

For whatever reason, your child just doesn’t believe in themself. They give up easily, take unkind words to heart, or speak about themselves in a way that tells you they’re not sure they have the ability to do hard things. Play Therapy is proven to develop a child’s long-term self-esteem and your play therapist will help you develop this confidence at home, too.

Despite knowing coping skills, your child doesn’t use them when needed.

Coping skills are everywhere these days, which is great! Schools teach deep breathing and Daniel Tiger has demonstrated the importance of counting to ten before responding to a stressful situation. Maybe you’ve told your child repeatedly to take a break if they’re getting angry. So why don’t they ever use these tools?

Using therapeutic tools to cope requires insight into what we (not just kids, adults, too!) are experiencing and why. As discussed above, children are often not aware of their emotions until it’s too late and the punch has been thrown. When play therapy develops insight into a child’s emotions, it lays a strong foundation that empowers children to be able to access those tools. Before we can solve a problem, we need to be able to understand it. And before a child can use deep breathing to regulate their nervous system, they need to be comfortable identifying that what they are experiencing is anger AND feel confident in their ability to regulate. (Hopefully you’re beginning to see how all these benefits work together!) Nothing they learn in child-centered play therapy is a stand-alone skill. Instead, all the benefits will work together to support a healthy, functional child.

As a parent, you need support understanding and connecting with your child.

There is an abundance of information about how to be a “good” parent and you’ve tried to do many of the “right” things. You’re confused about why your child behaves the way they do and what they’re struggling with. And despite your frustration, you love them and want to feel connected to them. Your play therapist can help you understand the root of what your child is experiencing and how they see the world. The feedback you receive through regular parent meetings at Children’s Way Counseling will enrich your relationship as you gain insight into your child and how they experience the world, and as your therapist offers guidance on how you can better support them and strengthen your relationship.

You want someone to see the good in your child, not just their struggles.

Children are more than their behaviors. You’ll often hear the therapist at Children’s Way Counseling say that all kids are good kids, but sometimes good kids have a hard time. Play therapy allows children to demonstrate their strengths and talents, not just their struggles. As your therapist observes and supports the child developing these, she will share them with you, as the parents or caregivers, as well! Often the child is the most surprised out of everyone to realize what a special person they are, but as they build that insight? The confidence discussed above will build as well.

You want your child to become a healthy teenager and adult.

The benefits of play therapy are long-term. While yes, deep breathing has amazing outcomes, when tools are combined with the other outcomes listed here, a child will take these lessons into adulthood. And while it’s often the immediacy of stressors that bring a family to play therapy, the benefits gained often benefit the child into adolescence and beyond.

Many parents bring their children to play therapy because other strategies haven’t worked and they’re looking for support. If any of these sound like outcomes that could benefit your family, Children’s Way Counseling is available to discuss your needs and help you decide the next best step for your family.

How to begin child therapy with Children’s Way Counseling:

 If you’re interested in learning more about services we provide, please visit our Services page! To reach out and have a no-obligations phone call with our Therapist, please complete our online form and our licensed provider will reach out to you soon.