Insights therapists in Red Deer use play therapy during children’s counseling to facilitate communication and access to raw emotions that young children frequently are unable to verbalize. Play therapy involves such items as dolls, drawing utensils, crayons, paints and clay.
Children readily use these items to tell stories which a therapist then interprets and applies to the child’s particular situation. Therapists also gain insight into the child’s emotional state by using play therapy because children easily transfer the difficult emotions they are experiencing to deliberately staged scenes in pictures or making dolls act out what they are feeling.
Will play therapy work with my child?
By employing play therapy, children’s therapists are able to reach children who find it difficult to convey exactly what they are feeling. Instead, children symbolize what they are feeling by drawing pictures or creating plays with dolls. Acting out or artistically representing their emotions is also a method that subtly allows the child to become more aware of their feelings. This actualization of emotions generates a sense of catharsis in the child that relieves anxiety and provides the child with the ability to better communicate with their therapist.
Additionally, children in play therapy eventually find they are able to control emotions and deal more effectively with conflicts that arise
