Play Therapy
What is Play Therapy?
Play therapy can benefit a wide range of populations, but it is particularly effective for:
- Children: Play therapy is most commonly used with children, as it aligns with their natural mode of communication and expression. It’s suitable for children of various ages, from preschoolers to adolescents. Sometimes adults can even benefit from certain types of play!
- Traumatized Children: Children who have experienced trauma, abuse, neglect, or other adverse experiences can benefit greatly from play therapy. It provides a safe and non-threatening way for them to process their emotions, thoughts, and experiences.
- Children with Behavioral Issues: Play therapy can be effective for children with behavioral problems such as aggression, defiance, or attention difficulties. It helps them learn to regulate their emotions, develop coping skills, and improve self-control.
- Children with Developmental Challenges: Play therapy is often used with children with developmental delays, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or other special needs. It can help improve social skills, communication, and emotional regulation in these populations.
- Children Experiencing Life Transitions: Play therapy can be beneficial for children experiencing major life changes such as parental divorce, relocation, loss of a loved one, or changes in family structure. It helps them navigate these transitions and adjust to new circumstances.
Overall, play therapy is adaptable and can be tailored to meet the needs of diverse populations, making it a valuable therapeutic approach for many individuals and families.
Benefits of Play Therapy:
- Facilitates Expression: Play therapy provides a non-verbal and child-centered approach, allowing children to express themselves freely through play rather than words.
- Promotes Emotional Regulation: Through play, children learn to identify and regulate their emotions, developing coping strategies to manage stress and anxiety.
- Enhances Communication Skills: Play therapy encourages verbal and non-verbal communication, helping children articulate their thoughts and feelings more effectively.
- Supports Trauma Processing: Play therapy offers a safe space for children to revisit and process traumatic experiences, fostering healing and resilience.
- Encourages Problem-Solving: Engaging in symbolic play promotes creativity and problem-solving skills, empowering children to explore solutions to real-life challenges.
- Strengthens Relationships: Play therapy strengthens the bond between the child and therapist, as well as improving interpersonal skills and building trust in relationships.
Outcomes of Play Therapy:
- Improved Emotional Well-being: Children participating in play therapy often experience reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression, and behavioral issues.
- Enhanced Self-Esteem: Play therapy helps children develop a positive self-image and greater confidence in their abilities.
- Increased Resilience: By learning coping skills and processing traumatic experiences, children become more resilient in the face of adversity.
- Better Social Skills: Play therapy fosters improved social interaction, empathy, and conflict resolution skills, leading to healthier relationships with peers and family members.
- Academic Success: As emotional well-being improves, children may experience better concentration, motivation, and academic performance.
- Long-Term Benefits: The skills and insights gained through play therapy can have lasting effects, positively impacting the child’s development and future well-being.
Learn More About Mental Health
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
PTSD is characterized by symptoms that often develop after we go through a traumatic incident. These symptoms can include feelings of depression and anxiety, intense fear, difficulty relaxing, constantly looking for potential threats, intrusive memories of the trauma, nightmares, and difficulty concentrating. Our therapists are trained in state-of-the-art trauma therapy, helping clients to improve their symptoms and ability to function in everyday life.
Depression
Do you feel sad or depressed much of the time? Are you exhausted, despite getting enough sleep? Do you feel as though you have lost your motivation to accomplish your goals, succeed at work, parent, etc? Depression is characterized by these feelings, as well as changes in your eating and sleeping habits, difficulty concentrating, and feeling worthless or not good enough. Sometimes, depression can be associated with thoughts of suicide or self-harm. Our therapists provide support to help you feel better and enjoy life again.
Work/Life Balance
Do you struggle with the ability to find the balance between your marriage, parenting, work, friendships, interests, and hobbies? In the last few years, as work has moved from in the office to remote, it has been hard to create a boundary between work and your personal life. We can help to create a plan to help restore a healthy work and personal life. We can work with you to put that plan into action, setting small goals, and leading toward creating a more meaningful and fulfilling life.
LGBTQI+
We are allies of the LGBTIQ+ community and recognize the diverse needs and support individuals need. We have worked with clients in the process of transitioning their gender, who are looking for support with managing the effects of hormones, changes in relationships, and community support. We understand while individuals may come into counseling for any number of reasons not related to sexuality, such as depression, anxiety, and trauma, the LGBTIQ+ community has its own set of unique challenges as well. We are here to support our clients and provide a safe space to cope with stigma, discrimination, and mental health issues.
Relationships Problems
If you are struggling in your relationship, therapy can help! We address communication issues, emotional and physical intimacy, and creating a deeper more meaningful relationship with your partner. If stress is affecting your relationship, we can help to create a plan to address and improve both of your stress management skills.
Family Therapy
The goal of family therapy is to help improve your relationship with your spouse, partner, children, or parents. It addresses how the family deals with stress or problems, and improves communication and understanding.
Insomnia
Do you have trouble either falling or staying asleep? Have you tried doctors, medications, herbal supplements, and internet recommendations, without any real change in your ability to sleep and feel rested? Our therapists are trained in CBT-I, which is a state-of-the-art therapy that is very effective for insomnia. This is a relatively quick therapy, with fast results!
Anxiety
When anxiety becomes a problem, people can find themselves constantly worrying or afraid. They can feel physiological symptoms such as difficulty breathing, shakiness, rapid heart rate, exhaustion, and difficulty eating or sleeping normally. If you are struggling with anxiety, our therapists are trained in Mindfulness Based Therapy, which has been shown to be extremely effective in treating anxiety.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Do you struggle with unwanted and unreasonable thoughts that can cause you to feel anxiety? Thoughts can be related to contamination of germs, fears that you left your stove on in your house, fear of saying things because they may come true, or other distressing thoughts. These distressing thoughts then cause compulsions or repeated behaviors to manage them. Behaviors can include
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- Repeated checking of the stove, locks, or appliances, even if you know it is off or locked,
- Frequently hand washing, even to the point of rashes or skin irritation,
- Compulsive list making
- Superstitious behavior
- Compulsive hair pulling
- Compulsive collecting or difficulty getting rid of things
- Needing to repeat a routine, such as opening or closing a door
Grief/Loss
It is inevitable that at some point in our life, we will experience the grief of losing someone we love. It is normal for grief to affect our relationships, work, motivation, and outlook on life. While grief is a very normal process, it can be helpful to have some additional support from therapists who understand the process, and help guide you in your healing process.
Stress Management
Stress is a big issue this day, whether it is from work, family, or life in general. Stress can cause a whole host of medical and mental health issues, such as upset stomach, headaches, pain, and muscle tension. Long term, stress can seriously affect our health, leading to heart attacks, IBS, Stokes, and cancer. Our therapists can teach you healthy ways to manage and decrease stress. Our focus is on creating balance and wellness in your life. If stress is caused by other mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, or PTSD, we can help to treat both issues in therapy.
Sexual Dysfunction
Sexual dysfunction is a scientific term for problems with desire, pain, and orgasm during sex. Clients seek help when they have problems maintaining an erection or having an orgasm before they are ready. Clients might also have problems feeling desire towards their partner or sex in general. Or maybe you feel pain during sex, which doesn’t have any type of medical cause. Our therapists can help to diagnose and treat many different sexual dysfunctions that cannot be addressed by medical professionals.
Couples Counseling
Are you struggling with your relationship? Is it hard to talk about what is going on? Do you start fighting about one thing with your partner, only to find that you are fighting about something else entirely? Would you like to feel closer to your spouse? Our therapists can help improve communication.