Children are not naturally able to verbalise their feelings and provide measured and reasonable explanations for their behaviour. It would be so much easier if they did! Play Therapy is a way for children to work through their issues in a way that comes naturally to them – play.
Play is the child’s work. Observe baby animals at play – their play is fun and enjoyable but completely serious, where they are practicing the skills they will need as adults. In the same way, children also play. They also communicate their thoughts and feelings through play and action, rather than in words.
It requires sophisticated mental processing to be able to be aware of your thoughts and feelings and then to be able to put them into words. Further sophistication is required to deliver those words in a calm, reasonable fashion so that that others will listen and hear. Young children’s brains are not developmentally tuned to to allow them to do all this. So working with them through play is an effective way of counselling because we are speaking in their language and on their terms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhFhfamS_uI&list=UU0DXBcxC-d63IZDtMzzFotA&feature=share
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