What are the benefits of play therapy?

84% of children show a positive change

There are a number of studies indicating that 20% of children have some form of emotional, behaviour or mental health problem and the 1999 and 2004 British government surveys estimated that 10% of children have a mental health problem. Can we help them? I believe we can.

Play Therapy UK’s clinical evidence base, containing over 12,000 anonymised cases, shows that up to  84% of children show a positive change through the use of play and creative arts therapies when delivered to PTUK standards. The more severe the problem, the higher the percentage of children that show a positive change.

So, what are the benefits of play therapy? Children can experience:

• Increased self-esteem and confidence
• More happiness and the ability to see joy in things
• Greater friendship skills
• Better relationships formed and maintained with other children and with adults
• More positive relationships with family and friends
• Better sleep
• Reduced anxiety and coping skills
• Better concentration, motivation and competence
• Improved trust both in themselves and others
• Greater understanding of risk
• Increased creativity and a desire to play
• Greater emotional regulation
• More resilience
• An acceptance of their past so that they can look to the future

Research has shown that play and the use of metaphor allows a child’s brain to develop new neural pathways (the way they think and respond) and strengthen links in their brain. Play can positively change a child’s brain structure, especially if the child has experienced early trauma or adverse childhood experiences (often called ACES). This in turn positively changes their behaviour.

Play Therapists offer the child a wide range of child-centred creative arts media, ‘the Play Therapy Tool Kit’ and a therapeutic space. The therapist enables the child to work with unconscious as well as conscious processes and to use non-directive and directive approaches. Directive approaches may be the therapist telling a therapeutic story, for example. Non-directive approaches are when the child chooses what they want to do, and how they want to do it. Conscious processes are the things the child knows and the unconscious are the things they might have forgotten or buried deep in their memory. The unconscious holds a lot of our hurt and although we might not be fully aware of those hurts our decisions and ways of responding are still affected by them.

Being able to process both conscious and unconscious confusion or hurt in the safety of play allows children to face their difficulties and the emotions surrounding them. They can use whichever media they choose to explore those feelings and become more settled as they make sense of past experiences and emotions. By playing out the things they’re frightened of, with a trained play therapist, they can start to make sense of those things and be less afraid. Over time, those scary events can be put into perspective and they can move forward stronger and more confident. Releasing the build-up of unresolved emotions enables the child to face their future with more coping skills and resilience, and an open mind ready for learning and for enjoying positive relationships with others.