Services Provided
Individual Play Therapy
Family Play Therapy
Parent Child Interaction Therapy
What exactly is Play Therapy?
Play therapy is an umbrella term as there are many forms of play therapy. There are two distinct styles of play therapy:
Non directive: The child client leads the play, choosing what and how to play. A selection of toys are available in the play room that are purposely selected by the therapist to enable the child to explore feelings, process life challenges, build confidence, problem solve, and practice social skills. The therapist is trained to reflect, narrate the play of the child, and track themes to help the child work through the problems.
Directive: The therapist leads the play, choosing a specific play activity based on the goals. For example, a therapist may choose to play a board game with cards focused on identifying feelings, practice problem solving, and practice coping skills.
For more information about play therapy, check out the Association for Play Therapy:
A bit about Parent Child Interaction Therapy
Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a very structured parent child therapy for children 3-7. PCIT can be modified to fit toddlers as well as children a little older than 7. PCIT was developed by Sheila Eyeberg originally for children with excessive and problematic external behaviors (i.e. tantrums, aggression). It is considered an evidenced based intervention with decades of research to back it up. Extensive research has shown that PCIT is also helpful for children with internal issues (i.e. anxiety), autism, and children in foster care. It is a highly structured therapy with two phases:
Child Directed Intervention: Parents learn play skills that help enhance their relationship with their child and helps to decrease issues that the child may be struggling with or problems within the parent child relationship.
Parent Directed Intervention: Parents learn and practice a specific technique for setting limits which helps the child increase acceptance of limits set.
Fore more information about Parent Child Interaction Therapy, check out their official website at https://www.pcit.org/