What is Therapeutic Play, and How Can it Help Your Child?

Is your child struggling with anxiety, behavioural issues, or social challenges? Perhaps they’ve experienced grief or trauma that’s impacting their ability to thrive. Therapeutic play can be a powerful tool in helping children navigate these challenges and reach their full potential.

What is Therapeutic Play?

Imagine a space where your child can freely express themselves through toys, games, and creative activities. This is the essence of therapeutic play, a structured approach to play in which the play becomes the child’s language, guiding their healing and growth. In this safe and supportive environment, guided by a trained therapist, your child can:

• Express themselves freely: Through therapeutic play, children can express emotions they may struggle to articulate verbally, such as grief, anger, sadness, or fear.
• Process difficult experiences: Play allows children to re-enact and work through challenging situations in a safe and controlled environment while maintaining the appropriate emotional distance needed from the experience or event they are processing
• Develop coping skills: Through imaginative play, children can experiment with different solutions and problems to explore their power and mastery in tricky situations as well as develop healthy coping mechanisms.
• Build self-esteem: Therapeutic play can help children gain a sense of control, boosting their confidence and self-worth.

How Does Therapeutic Play Work?

During a therapeutic play session, the psychologist observes the child’s play, paying attention to their choices, behaviours, and interactions. The psychologist will usually track the child’s play as a neutral bystander, and will refrain from offering guidance. When it is appropriate, the psychologist will introduce specific toys or activities that are aimed to help the child reflect on their experiences. The goal is to create a safe and supportive environment where the child can lead the way, using play as their primary mode of communication and healing.

The Benefits of Therapeutic Play

Therapeutic play offers a wide range of benefits for children facing various challenges, including:

• Anxiety: Play can help children manage anxiety by providing an outlet for worries and fears, allowing them to explore their anxieties in a safe space. Children practice solutions and strategies in imaginary play, gaining the confidence and comfortability to then translate this into real life scenarios.
• Behavioural issues: Children struggling with behavioural challenges can learn to regulate emotions and impulses through play while practicing social skills, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.
• Grief and trauma: Play can help children process grief and trauma by providing a symbolic way to express and work through their experiences. It also allows children to feel a sense of power and control in safely communicating with the individuals attached to the experience through play.
• Social challenges: Therapeutic play creates a safe space for children to practice social interaction, develop empathy, and build relationships.

For children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and ADHD, therapeutic play can be particularly beneficial as it can teach them to improve focus and impulse control, as well as emotional regulation, social skills, and communication. As children begin to learn new skills, they guide and model fictional characters in the play, thus assimilating their new skills.

Is Therapeutic Play Right for Your Child?

Therapeutic play can be a valuable tool to support their growth and well-being if your child is struggling with emotional, behavioural, or social challenges. It’s particularly effective for children who find it difficult to express themselves verbally or who’ve experienced trauma or significant life changes.

At The Family Psychology Place, therapeutic play is facilitated by Registered Clinical Psychologist Azra Karmali-Moloo. Azra has more than eight years of experience working with children, providing various modalities of therapeutic intervention. Azra has certification in foundations of play therapy and is trained in utilizing play-based elements such as sand trays, dolls/miniatures, puppets, expressive art, games and more.

If you’d like to learn more about therapeutic play or schedule a consultation for your child, contact us today.