Children's Guide to Play Therapy

What is Play Therapy?

Play therapy helps children who have some kind of problem in their lives. When you hurt yourself, someone that cares for you might take you to a doctor to make you feel better. A play therapist’s job is to help children who have hurt feelings, on the inside.

Why am I going to Play Therapy?

It’s hard to talk about feelings sometimes, and when you go to play therapy you won't have to talk too much. You may feel sad or angry or scared about something, or maybe something terrible has happened. You might not feel good about yourself, or just feel like fighting all the time. When you go to play therapy, you might play with toys, draw pictures or make things - normally you can choose what to do and you can just be yourself. While you play, your play therapist will try to help you understand your feelings, and this can help your problems to feel better.

What will my play therapist do?

First, your play therapist will meet with the grown ups who know you, so they can find out a bit more about you, how you are, and how they might help you. You will meet your play therapist and they will learn about you. Then you and your play therapist will play together, usually at the same time and in the same place every week, for about an hour.

Your play therapist normally won’t tell other grown ups what you’ve been playing, but sometimes they will have to tell them how you are. If they are really worried about you, they might tell other grown ups so that you stay safe. You can talk about what you’ve been doing with your play therapist with anyone you want to, but if you feel like you don’t want to tell anyone, that’s okay too.