[custom_frame_right shadow=”on”]play therapy[/custom_frame_right]Play therapy is an effective tool useful especially working with younger clients.  Although it may be used for people of all ages, here at Children’s Therapy Place we focus on children’s needs and offer cutting edge tools and strategies to help children deal with their life issues.

Play therapy has been around a long time.

A famous saying from Plato says, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”  The origins of counseling demonstrate examples of play therapy starting with Sigmund Freud.  

More recently, the American Play Therapy Association, established in 1982, and various State chapters (including the State of Idaho) are involved in play therapy.  Many organizations and associations incorporate play therapy into their intervention models.  Some examples include the American Red Cross, World Vision, and the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights.  There are also many countries investing in play therapy research including Great Britain, Iran, South Africa, and Taiwan.

Play therapy is best conducted by trained mental health professionals.

Much study is involved for a counselor to become a registered play therapist.  To do so, a State license in Counseling or Social Work including Master’s degree or PhD, two years and two thousand hours of experience in counseling, two hundred supervision hours, yearly renewal and continuing education units, must first be obtained.  After this, a licensed counselor must have an additional one hundred and fifty play therapy class hours, five hundred hours of direct play therapy experience and fifty hours of concurrent play therapy supervision, yearly renewal and continued education units in play therapy modalities to become a registered play therapist.

Just as adults use words to communicate, children use play. Children who do not speak may be able to do play therapy.

Play therapy is another method in helping children work through difficult issues.  We are happy to offer play therapy here at Children’s Therapy Place.  We have a clinician who is a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor and another who if in process of becoming a Registered Play Therapist.   They conduct different methods including the Dimensions model, a Psychodynamic approach, Sandplay and various other modalities in the play therapy offered at Children’s Therapy Place.  We are always looking for new ways in which to work with children.

If your child is in need of high quality therapy, please consider Children’s Therapy Place in your research.  We accept Medicaid and all insurance carriers and offer counseling five days per week with our three locations (Boise, Meridian and Nampa).

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