Did you know it is National Play Therapy week?!?!? Here in KY it was 71 degrees today! This is a great day to kick off play therapy week! This week I will be writing on Play Therapy and various topics in order to celebrate this amazing approach to therapy. Many people do not know or understand what play therapy entails, all the clinical stuff behind play, or what play therapy can help with. We are going to review that this week. I hope to spend just a few moments for each topic in order to educate you, the public, the consumer of mental health services, including parents and kiddos alike!
This information will be helpful for new clinicians working with children and teens. If you are working with kids or teens having some training in play therapy is a MUST! You may not be an RPT but having some knowledge about play therapy and how to navigate that process is so important. (and I will be going over why)
My preferred approach to therapy is client centered, for both kids and adults. Even though I am a play therapist, I am also a family therapist so I work a lot with adults, parents, and family systems. With all clients, being client centered is so important. In play therapy that is known as child centered play therapy. I will be reviewing what CCPT is, why it is so amazing, and how to use CCPT with other models of treatment.
If you are a client, it is important to know what model your therapist is using, and the underlying theories with that model. Therapy is about self discovery for you and your therapist. You are the expert of your own life, therapists are not. We may have education and training on things that may be helpful, connecting dots, exploring and uncovering connections. This is your journey, we just help navigate this process. This is most certainly true for children. They need to be in control of the therapeutic process we are just listeners, explorers, baring witness to the miracle that play therapy is.
