Professional, Tailored, Therapy
Therapy Services South West C.I.C, designed and tailored for you
Play Therapy
Play Therapy helps children understand muddled feelings and upsetting events that they have not 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 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 specific such as a change in behaviour and improved relations with family and friends.
Benefits of Play Therapy
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It helps the child- through play the child will often process their deepest unconscious emotions, enabling them to make sense of often harrowing experiences. Through this regular intervention a child can often undergo dramatic change as their behaviour alters and low self-esteem is often boosted.
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In many cases the process enables children to “find themselves” as they gain the ability to cope with their life and its challenges. Through play therapy the child can practice thinking differently, acting differently, being different. Achieving this healing so young is vital, helping not only to alleviate their immediate concerns, but delivering an enhanced likelihood of emotional stability into adulthood.
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It helps the child’s family and friends- play therapy’s potential to heal a young person can lead to stronger, more positive relationships with those around them, which further builds and reinforces their emotional wellbeing. The positive change in a perhaps previously behaviourally challenging child is welcomed by their peers and adults alike.
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At home- as the child develops through their therapy, the positivity they can gain from the sessions can lead to different behaviour which potentially strengthens family bonds, making for a calmer, more positive home environment.
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At school- the child’s increased self-esteem can enable them to interact differently with classmates and teachers. This can potentially enhance their social skills and confidence, as well as having a academic impact by improving concentration and focus, which builds more positive relationship with teachers and further increases their self-esteem.
AutPlay Therapy
AutPlay® Therapy was created by Dr. Robert Jason Grant and is a play and behavioural therapy approach to working with children and families affected by autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dysregulation issues, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. It integrates therapeutic models of play therapy and behavioural therapy along with relationship development approaches together in a collaborative model to assist children and adolescents in gaining needed skills and abilities. AutPlay Therapy is a combination of behavioural and developmental methodology that is both therapist-led and parent-led.
AutPlay Therapy has Shown Effective Treatment Outcomes for the Following Areas
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• Increasing Emotional Regulation Ability
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• Improving Social Skills and Functioning
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• Improving Relationship Development and Connection
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• Reducing Anxiety Levels
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• Improving Sensory Processing Challenges
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• Increasing Concentration, Focus, and Attention
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• Reducing Unwanted Behaviours
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• Improving the Parent/Child Relationship
AutPlay Therapy provides a screening and assessment process to evaluate where a child’s level is at in terms of basic functioning and skill development in emotional regulation, social functioning, and relationship development.
This procedure allows the therapist to direct specific play therapy interventions to address each individual child’s skill deficits. AutPlay Therapy is appropriate for children and adolescents with an autism disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dysregulation issues, neurodevelopmental disorders, and developmental disabilities from severe to mild impairment. AutPlay is appropriate for children ages 3-18.
In AutPlay Therapy, parents participate equally in therapy with their children and become co-change agents with the therapist in helping their children develop needed skills. AutPlay® Therapy incorporates a parent training component which teaches parents how to conduct structured play therapy interventions at home. The therapist is training the parents to do structured play therapy interventions at home with their child. These interventions are typically chosen by the therapist (although parents can participate in choosing interventions) as interventions to use to help develop skill deficits in the six target areas covered in AutPlay; emotional regulation ability, social skills development, connection, sensory processing struggles, anxiety, and behavioural challenges. The Therapist continues to meet with parents and train parents in implementing the interventions at home until treatment goals have been met.
Therapeutic Life Story Work
For children who have been removed from the care of their birth family and suffered placement breakdowns or transitions, their life history can be extremely fragmented, leaving the child feeling lost and with no sense of belonging (Perry, 2012).
Therapeutic Life Story Work
This can impact hugely on their well-being and make the child very vulnerable in their present and future.
Therapeutic Life Story Work empowers a child’s voice and provides them with a safe space to feel and express their thoughts and emotions when making sense of past experiences and the relationship these have to their current thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. When a Therapeutic Life Story approach is conducted with care, thought and sensitivity, it offers a space for children and young people to start rebuilding the pieces of their lives that have been discarded, lost, or damaged.
It offers a therapeutic space to give children a voice in their world and have it respected and valued. The ability for them to do this alongside their carer is crucial in building upon their attachment, allowing them to share their trauma experiences in a safe way with a carer who is able to show acceptance of both the child’s inner world, and external reality.
Drawing and Talking
Drawing and Talking is a child-centred therapy focusing on prevention, early intervention, and recovery of mental health issues.
Drawing and Talking
Drawing and Talking is a safe serial drawing technique for use with children and young people who have suffered trauma or have underlying emotional difficulties affecting their mental health and well-being. The technique is based on Jungian and Attachment (Bowlby) theories. This is a 12-week intervention, with one 30-minute session, on the same day and time each week.
This is a safe and gentle therapeutic approach, providing an effective way for children and young people to process emotional pain or trauma they may be experiencing through the medium of drawing. The child or young person will use drawing as an outlay to create solutions to their problems on their own. This intervention complements the work of CAMHS.
SandStory Therapy
SandStory Therapy® is a unique therapeutic approach which enables the child to tell their story in the sand.
SandStory Therapy
SandStory Therapy® safely combines the therapeutic use of sand, water and symbols to enable the SandStory Therapist to fully support their client through their therapeutic journey.
SandStory Therapy® is unique in holding a safe and gentle space for the conscious to be curious and to communicate with your unconscious so that intuitive insights and significant shifts may take place.
It has been developed by the amazing Lara Kasza by combining the therapeutic use of SandTray Therapy and SandPlay Therapy with the expressive elements of storytelling.
SandStory Trays may be created through the client’s own ideas or the Therapist may offer suggestions in the form of therapeutic themes based on their knowledge of the client.
The length of the client’s therapeutic journey depends on the client and will be discussed with the client and their parent/carer if required.
