Play Therapy

We provide counselling for children using play. Play therapy is a well established, research-based intervention shown to improve children’s emotional well-being. The therapy takes place in a specially equipped play room and is provided by a Registered Counsellor with specialised post-graduate training in the use of Play Therapy.

Kelly works from a firm belief that parents and children are doing the best they can to solve problems. Unwelcome, challenging behaviours often require a new approach. She uses the power of play, along with parent support to encourage children to explore and develop new ways of being.  Children are not yet fully able to process difficult experiences through talking. Play is their natural language and the use of play in therapy allows them to use their own innate ability to grow and to heal.

Play therapy is most beneficial for children who have experienced stressful or traumatic events such as medical procedures, an accident, parental separation or divorce, witnessing violence, the death of a loved one, adoption or attachment disruption. 

Children as young as three can benefit from play therapy.

I offer play therapy for the following: 

~ Anxiety ~ Depression ~ Physical Symptoms (trouble with sleep, stomach aches, etc)  ~  Grief & Loss  ~  Divorce  ~  Bullying  ~   Emotional Outbursts   ~  Trouble at School ~

• Give your child strategies for managing worries and anxiety
• Help your child learn to regulate their emotion
• Teach your child how to play 
• Practice social skills for use at school
• Increase your child's self esteem and reslience

Synergetic Play Therapy™ (SPT) is the first research-informed play therapy model to blend together neuroscience, attachment, therapist authenticity, nervous system regulation, and mindfulness.  Synergetic Play Therapy is based on brain sciences, utilizing its foundation in neurobiology to help children reach a state of regulation in the natural language of children: play. Not only will challenging behaviors decrease, but the child’s ability to express wants, needs, and emotions will improve, allowing families to connect with balance and harmony. 

This method employs a nurturing, holistic approach that is Child Directed rather than Therapist Directed. This process allows us to modify the approach on an individual level in order to connect on each child’s specific needs rather than taking a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Since the child controls the direction and speed of therapy, realizing change and achieving goals becomes inevitable.

As a child enters the play room and forms a relationship with me, a synergy forms. We connect in the play as the child learns and explores, and we then begin the work of moving towards feelings, thoughts, memories, and body sensations that have been a previous source of challenge and dysregulation for the child. In this play as we move towards challenges, I teach regulation and the child begins to learn new behaviors, beliefs, and a new way of being in the world right there in the room. 

A child will use the toys – perhaps sand, art, dolls, cars, or anything else in the play room – to help me understand his or her experience of the world and of themselves. Through this play and through our relationship, new patterns of relationship and behavior are formed.  

Parents will be engaged in the therapeutic process and will be provided with feedback on the sessions and how to support and nurture their child at home. 

Learn more about Synergetic Play Therapy:  www.synergeticplaytherapy.com