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Play Therapy
Play therapy is an internationally-valued form of treatment whereby
the therapist provides various tools (recognized as 'toys' and
'games' by children, adolescents, and parents) that elicit certain
themes during play.
Examples with children (depends on age/interests):
- Dolls elicit family themes
where children can create 'stories' between figures that may
resemble conflicts the child has within his/her own family. With
therapy goals in mind, the therapist facilitates the child's play
in order to maximize the learning of new skills, help resolve any
confusions, and to provide healthy alternatives for managing
emotion. Boys often select animals figures or other toys for
similar reasons.
Examples with
adolescents (depends on age/interests):
- Board Games provide opportunities to
challenge a child's/adolescent's interpersonal skills typically
played out with peers. The psychologist, in becoming an opponent in
the game, assists the child/adolescent in learning social skills,
such as frustration tolerance, taking turns, and coping with
emotions such as winning, losing, competition, even negotiating
about rules.
During therapeutic play, it
is common for a child (and especially adolescents) to do 'talk
therapy' about the real-world dilemmas that he/she is
experiencing.
For more information, please view the
Play Therapy Association website: http://www.a4pt.org/ps.playtherapy.cfm
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