Play Therapy in Westlake Village & Simi Valley California
Play is a child’s first language – it just comes naturally.
Play Therapy for children is a way of being with a child that honors their unique developmental level and struggles while looking for ways to help a child process their emotions through their struggles. I use the play process therapeutically to help my clients ages 7-12, to express themselves in appropriate and healthy ways and assist in resolving problems or building strategies for coping with their struggles. Children are often powerless to change what’s troubling but helping them develop their own sense of empowerment that comes with resilience can be very helpful.
What is Play Therapy & How Can It Help?
Play therapy works best when a safe relationship is created between the therapist and client, one in which the child feels free safe and supported to naturally express both what pleases and troubles them.
Mental health agencies, schools, hospitals, and private practitioners have utilized play therapy as a primary intervention or as supportive therapy for:
- Behavioral problems, such as anger management, grief and loss, divorce and/or abandonment, crisis and trauma.
- Behavioral disorders, such as anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD), autism or pervasive developmental, academic and social developmental, physical and learning disabilities, and conduct disorders.
Research suggests play therapy is an effective mental health approach, regardless of age, gender, or the nature of the problem, and works best when a parent, family member, or caretaker is actively involved in the treatment process.
Healing Kids With Play Therapy is Special
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play IS serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” -Fred Rogers, creator and star of the show Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
Children are such wonderful and complex people. They experience the full range of human emotions, but do not always have the vocabulary or ability to say what they feel. When children play, barriers that prevent their expression melt away.
As a play therapist and as a Nana, I have learned to listen and hear the messages that children can’t get out in other ways. Happiness, fear, anger, confusion, all of these things that our children express as a tantrum or through defiance, or anger and unkind words, are attempts to connect to their grown ups and ask for help. I am here to listen to them and you. My life’s work and joy has been to help children connect and have more harmonious and close relationships with their grown ups that flourish as they grow up.
