Using therapeutic play to help children express feelings

There is a trusting relationship to be built and maintained, where emotions can be processed, and positive behaviours can be emulated in an enhanced group living experience.

Unlike dyadic therapies, the role of a therapeutic practitioner is encompassed in daily routines and activities. Going to the shops, or to a playground or a soft play centre usually belongs to the world of being a parent, so receiving comments such as: “You should be so proud of your son, he’s so polite” should feel ordinary. After such a comment, both me and the child would look at each other, usually ending up just smiling. Sometimes I do explain that “I’m his carer”, sometimes we leave it be.

As a “bank” therapeutic childcare practitioner, I see the idea of “ordinary” at the very core of a therapeutic community: this “village”, might indeed look, to some extent, ordinary to the outside world. Raising children in a therapeutic community holds a very specific purpose and ethos; it also involves getting the children ready for school, sharing a meal together, watching a movie with popcorn on a Saturday night, celebrating birthdays.

Important conversations might happen at any time, and the child is supported to make sense of his or her experiences and feelings by a group of grown-ups, often already trained in helping professions, such as music and movement therapy or counselling, who would make use of their skillset in an informal way.

Providing experiences of ordinary life, ensuring reliability, stability and predictability to the children, the therapeutic milieu of a community allows for the challenges and little victories of daily life to be shared with a team of practitioners, who are there to support the child’s development and healing.

Play therapy offers a protected space for symbolic and metaphorical expression in mediums of art (through clay modelling, painting, drawing, music) and play (using drama and movement props, toys, games, puppets and a sand tray), helping children who don’t easily find the right words for their experience.

Meanwhile, additional dyadic or group therapies, such as music therapy or child psychotherapy might be a part of a comprehensive therapeutic plan for individual children residing in the community.