Children need to tell their story or their story will tell them

Children need to tell their story. If they don’t tell their story, their story will tell them.

This means that their story will get told, no matter what. Usually, this will occur through their behaviour e.g. anxiety, anger, acting out etc.  They may talk about their story to people around them, they may play out fragments of the story in inappropriate places and ways.  This spilling out of the story occurs because they have a need to tell about what has happened to them. At this point, the need to tell their story is preventing the child from moving through the experience and moving on.

Play Therapy allows children to tell their story in a way which is difficult to accommodate in the usual life. The Play Therapist creates a safe, accepting and trusting therapeutic relationship with your child, which allows them to tell their story in a way that is difficult to do in daily life. The full and deep telling of this story allows children to move through and beyond their traumatic experiences.

The child is now free to accept care and express care for others, in way that all children are naturally bound to do.  They become open to the Play Therapy experiences which help them heal and practice new abilities.  They develop the capacity for self-responsibility, self-regulation and empathy for others.