Play Therapy

Play Therapy is a psychotherapeutic method used to help children communicate their inner experiences. For children, aged 3-12 in particular, play is considered to be the most natural means of communication and expression and may even be as important as food and sleep. Since playing is central and vital to the child’s full development, it also has healing properties.

Non-directive play therapy or otherwise Child-Centred Play Therapy used in our centre GIA TIN ITHAKI is an approach that doesn’t treat a child’s unwanted behaviour as pathological, but simultaneously is based on the belief that children have an internal motivation to achieve personal well-being.

Therapists who specialize in this psychotherapeutic approach are trained to trust the child’s ability to direct their own healing process without imposing on the child their own ideas about what the child needs to do or work on during the treatment. Any internal conflicts or external challenges faced by the child can always be symbolically expressed through play in the playroom session based on their own abilities and at their own pace.

This is because Play Therapy provides a completely safe environment, in which the child feels comfortable to trust the therapist. Thus, through the healing process the child expresses, processes and understands her / his experiences and feelings and even solves any difficulties that interfere with her / his normal development or cause problems in daily life.

The therapist is properly trained to enter the child’s inner world. Play Therapy is based on the belief that play is the language used by the child and toys in the field of Play Therapy are the words with which the child communicates to express needs and concerns as well as inner experiences or otherwise how she / he perceives the world.

Play Therapy is appropriate in the following cases:

  • managing anger and / or aggression
  • behavioural problems
  • communication problems
  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
  • autism
  • Asperger’s syndrome
  • developmental delay
  • mood disorders (e.g., depression)
  • anxiety, anxiety disorders and phobias
  • nocturnal enuresis and encopresis
  • school bullying
  • weak performance at school
  • mourning / loss
  • illness in the family
  • divorce / separation
  • trauma / abuse (emotional, physical or sexual)

Play Therapy can be used as a technique in the context of integrative psychotherapy and in older ages, adolescents and adults.