In Child Centred Play Therapy (CCPT), play IS the therapy.
Play Therapy is not the application of play to facilitate communicating with the child, yet children receive empowering and therapeutic messages in their Play Therapy experience. They learn what it feels to be empowered because they are genuinely empowered within Play Therapy sessions, rather than being told how to feel empowered.
Nor is Child Centred Play Therapy the use of play as an assessment tool, although assessment and understanding of the child may occur as a result. In CCPT, play IS the therapy.
The Play Therapist creates a therapeutic environment of safety, trust and holding that brings about full and deep expression of the child’s self through play. The natural developmental need and will of the child to grow in a healthy way brings about therapeutic experiences that the child requires to grow and develop. The CCPT has full confidence in the child’s desire for healthy relationships and their capacity and ability to do so and solve the problem of how to do this.
With some children, they may create experiences in which they need to learn to tolerate uncomfortable feelings, with others, they may learn what it feels like to be in control so that they may learn to regulate their anxiety or anger. Other children may experience that they are lovable, competent and acceptable, thus allowing them to rebuild their self-esteem.
Because the child has chosen this path for themselves, the work done is powerful, deep and enduring.
