Beacons Therapy

 

What is Play Therapy?

 

Play Therapy helps children understand muddled feelings and upsetting events that they haven’t had the chance to sort out properly. Rather than having to explain what is troubling them, as adult therapy usually expects, children use play to communicate at their own level and at their own pace, without feeling interrogated or threatened.

 

Play therapy helps bring natural communication out within the inner child. "Symbols have been used for centuries to communicate through language without uttering a single word." This concept is provided to us by Virginia Axline.

 

**Exciting times for Beacons Play Therapy**

We are having a new center built in Maidstone where clients can let their sorrow and anxieties out in a safe, relaxed and professional environment.

 

We offer different tools to help cope with the worries that are built up inside;

 

·Sand tray and Symbols

·Clay

·Masks

·Therapeutic Storytelling

·Puppets

·Role Pay

·Dance and Movement

·Art - Drawing and Painting

·Creative visualisation

·Music

 

These tools will help strengthen the inner child without the need for spoken words.

 

Beacons Play Therapy has a strict code of practice and ethical frameworks that it must adhere to, which are provided by PTUK (We are not regulated by them). More information can be found on their website.  

 

How can Play Therapy help my child?

 

Play is vital to every child’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical, creative and language development. It helps make learning concrete for all children and young people including those for whom verbal communication may be difficult.

 

Play Therapy helps children in a variety of ways. Children receive emotional support and can learn to understand more about their own feelings and thoughts. Sometimes they may re-enact or play out traumatic or difficult life experiences in order to make sense of their past and cope better with their future. Children may also learn to manage relationships and conflicts in more appropriate ways.

 

The outcomes of Play Therapy may be general e.g. a reduction in anxiety and raised self-esteem, or more specificly, such as a change in behaviour and improved relations with family and friends.