Benefits of Play Therapy
While play therapy may sound like it is just playing with toys; it is actually a real form of psychotherapy that offers therapeutic benefits for children (as well as teens and adults) through exploring thoughts, emotions, and actions during play. Play is a key element of healthy child development – our brains grow the most in the first five years of life, and neural connectivity is critical for our brains to fully develop. Our abilities to communicate and process issues take place in the prefrontal cortex area of the brain. Play stimulates those areas that help connect neurons which contribute to major domains of a child’s life, such as social and emotional development.
Unlike adults who often talk out their problems, children typically act them out through their behaviors. It can be challenging for young children to verbally express what is bothering them. Playing with toys like dolls and action figures, puppets, and blocks, or doing activities like role-playing, storytelling, creating sandtray scenes, reading books, dancing to music, and other creative outlets can give clues about issues in a child’s life. Toys can act as symbols that hold deeper meanings than one may think. Through this, therapists can observe the client’s behaviors and attachment style, and have a better idea of how they see their world.
Through play therapy, children learn to understand the world around them and can naturally express themselves about what is troubling them while working through their problems. Some children may use play to act out their fears, while some may use it as a way to self-soothe. This play may be structured or unstructured, directive or nondirective, independent or collaborative with the therapist. Whether the therapist is directly involved in the play or not, allowing the child to explore their environment in a safe and comfortable outlet can allow the counselor to naturally support them through their way of communicating. While clients may play as they wish in early sessions, overtime, once a trusting therapeutic alliance is established, the therapist can begin to gently guide clients to learn how to safely and appropriately express their emotions, learn about others’ emotions, and discover strategies to control their behavior in a healthy way that works best for them.
Benefits of play therapy include:
Learning to take responsibility
Self-respect
Improvements in social skills and empathy for others
Problem-solving skills
Healthier attachment with others
Improvements in academic performance
Learning new coping mechanisms
Children aren’t the only ones who can benefit from play therapy! Teens and adults who struggle to find the right words for how they are feeling can explore playful activities in addition to traditional talk therapy, as research has shown exploration of play can enhance cognitive and physical behaviors. These activities can include role-playing, sandtray therapy, music and dance, games, and more.
There are so many benefits to play therapy, and clients of all ages can benefit from this type of counseling!
-Written by Kristen Aufiero, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Intern