What is Play Therapy?
Play Therapy is the use of toys and other play materials to create changes in children’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. While there are many different types of Play Therapy, the Play Therapy space will have specific categories of toys and play materials that are found to be most effective and beneficial for children to use and play with during the Play Therapy process.
The job of the Play Therapist is to identify what specific type of Play Therapy will benefit your child most and set up the conditions and structures needed to help your child work through the mental health difficulties that brought them into therapy. The way the Play Therapist engages in your child’s play is specific to their mental health difficulties and goals your child is working towards.
After assessing your child’s needs your Play Therapist will be able to tell you the type of Play Therapy your child will be engaging in and how it will help them work towards their goals.
Learn more about Play Therapy here!
Will Play Therapy really help my child?
I get it - it may seem strange that playing with toys can help support your child’s mental health. And you may have questions like - if playing can help why doesn’t my child get better on their own?
Play Therapy is a specific therapeutic technique to be used by a trained Play Therapist and is an Evidence Based Practice, which means there has been extensive research on Play Therapy and has been found to show significant improvement with:
How does Play Therapy work? Doesn’t my child need to talk about their problems to get better?
Due to a child’s brain development and the specific way children learn they are not able to engage in traditional “talk therapy” to create improvements in their struggles like adults are.
In short - their right brain that holds their emotions and picture centers is more developed than the left part of their brain that holds their language centers and reason and logic. In adult forms of talk therapy we rely on the language, reason, and logic part for healing and processing, which is not fully formed or functioning in children, and actually doesn’t fully develop until adults turn between the ages of 25 and 30.
For children, play is their “language” and the specific ways they use the toys are their “words”. Children might use the sand tray, dolls, dramatic play costumes, puppets, or numerous other toys to help them make sense of their areas of difficulty and create insight on how to move forward.
The way the Play Therapist talks about the play and engages with the play helps with something called integration. Integration helps your child’s right brain (that holds the emotions and pictures) and their left brain (that holds the reason, logic, and language) make sense of the big difficulties that are bringing your child into therapy. When integration occurs your child will have relief from the struggles that brought them into therapy.
In short - Play Therapy helps your child heal in their own language, the language of play.
Is my child too old for Play Therapy?
Play Therapy has been shown to be effective for children as young as 3 years old and as old as 13! At Create Wellness we believe that nobody is too old to play. Teens can also benefit from engaging in Play Therapy based activities such as collages, art, and Sand Tray.
We also know that each child is different, so each child will go through an assessment to understand their unique strengths and struggles to determine the best therapeutic approaches that will help them work towards their goals.
How do I get started with Play Therapy for my child?
The healing power of Play Therapy should only be done by a Play Therapist with specialized training, supervision, and practice with Play Therapy. Ann Meehan is the only Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor in the Duluth, Cloquet, and Hermantown Minnesota area and just one of two therapists with the Registered Play Therapist designation in this area! Learn more about Ann HERE!
You might be thinking - does it matter if my therapist is a Registered Play Therapist? When looking for a therapist for your child you are the only one who can make the decision of who will be the best fit.
But, becoming a Registered Play Therapist is the difference between 150 hours of Play Therapy specific training and an extensive internship and supervision of the Play Therapy practice versus taking a training or two and attempting to use Play Therapy.
So in short, looking for a Registered Play Therapist is one of the best ways to know if the therapist your child will be working with has the comprehensive training, knowledge, and skills to effectively and ethically support your child using Play Therapy!
Click the link below to schedule a Play Therapy session for your child.
Other mental health services at Create Wellness Center for Child and Adolescent Therapy
Our Cloquet, Minnesota practice offers therapy services exclusively for children and teens who are struggling with big emotions and difficult life events. Create Wellness offers mental health counseling for children and teens with anxiety, difficulties with anger, depression, and trauma.
In addition to Play Therapy, we offer other specific types of specialty therapy including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
Play Therapy is the use of toys and other play materials to create changes in children’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. While there are many different types of Play Therapy, the Play Therapy space will have specific categories of toys and play materials that are found to be most effective and beneficial for children to use and play with during the Play Therapy process.
The job of the Play Therapist is to identify what specific type of Play Therapy will benefit your child most and set up the conditions and structures needed to help your child work through the mental health difficulties that brought them into therapy. The way the Play Therapist engages in your child’s play is specific to their mental health difficulties and goals your child is working towards.
After assessing your child’s needs your Play Therapist will be able to tell you the type of Play Therapy your child will be engaging in and how it will help them work towards their goals.
Learn more about Play Therapy here!
Will Play Therapy really help my child?
I get it - it may seem strange that playing with toys can help support your child’s mental health. And you may have questions like - if playing can help why doesn’t my child get better on their own?
Play Therapy is a specific therapeutic technique to be used by a trained Play Therapist and is an Evidence Based Practice, which means there has been extensive research on Play Therapy and has been found to show significant improvement with:
- Disruptive Behaviors including aggression
- Internalizing problems like depression and anxiety
- Academic difficulties
- Relationship stress
- Self-concept and self-esteem
- Trauma
- Social-emotional development
- Attention and focus difficulties
- Somatic problems
- Attachment difficulties
- Grief, loss, and bereavement
- Autism
How does Play Therapy work? Doesn’t my child need to talk about their problems to get better?
Due to a child’s brain development and the specific way children learn they are not able to engage in traditional “talk therapy” to create improvements in their struggles like adults are.
In short - their right brain that holds their emotions and picture centers is more developed than the left part of their brain that holds their language centers and reason and logic. In adult forms of talk therapy we rely on the language, reason, and logic part for healing and processing, which is not fully formed or functioning in children, and actually doesn’t fully develop until adults turn between the ages of 25 and 30.
For children, play is their “language” and the specific ways they use the toys are their “words”. Children might use the sand tray, dolls, dramatic play costumes, puppets, or numerous other toys to help them make sense of their areas of difficulty and create insight on how to move forward.
The way the Play Therapist talks about the play and engages with the play helps with something called integration. Integration helps your child’s right brain (that holds the emotions and pictures) and their left brain (that holds the reason, logic, and language) make sense of the big difficulties that are bringing your child into therapy. When integration occurs your child will have relief from the struggles that brought them into therapy.
In short - Play Therapy helps your child heal in their own language, the language of play.
Is my child too old for Play Therapy?
Play Therapy has been shown to be effective for children as young as 3 years old and as old as 13! At Create Wellness we believe that nobody is too old to play. Teens can also benefit from engaging in Play Therapy based activities such as collages, art, and Sand Tray.
We also know that each child is different, so each child will go through an assessment to understand their unique strengths and struggles to determine the best therapeutic approaches that will help them work towards their goals.
How do I get started with Play Therapy for my child?
The healing power of Play Therapy should only be done by a Play Therapist with specialized training, supervision, and practice with Play Therapy. Ann Meehan is the only Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor in the Duluth, Cloquet, and Hermantown Minnesota area and just one of two therapists with the Registered Play Therapist designation in this area! Learn more about Ann HERE!
You might be thinking - does it matter if my therapist is a Registered Play Therapist? When looking for a therapist for your child you are the only one who can make the decision of who will be the best fit.
But, becoming a Registered Play Therapist is the difference between 150 hours of Play Therapy specific training and an extensive internship and supervision of the Play Therapy practice versus taking a training or two and attempting to use Play Therapy.
So in short, looking for a Registered Play Therapist is one of the best ways to know if the therapist your child will be working with has the comprehensive training, knowledge, and skills to effectively and ethically support your child using Play Therapy!
Click the link below to schedule a Play Therapy session for your child.
Other mental health services at Create Wellness Center for Child and Adolescent Therapy
Our Cloquet, Minnesota practice offers therapy services exclusively for children and teens who are struggling with big emotions and difficult life events. Create Wellness offers mental health counseling for children and teens with anxiety, difficulties with anger, depression, and trauma.
In addition to Play Therapy, we offer other specific types of specialty therapy including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
