"Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities."

What is Play Therapy?

Play Therapy is the evidence-based developmental approach working with children ages 3—12 years old by trained professionals. Play Therapy is not the applied use of play with the goal of getting a child to talk about their problems as an adult would in therapy sessions. Play is the intervention in child therapy.

The Association of Play Therapy play therapy defines the practice  as "the systematic use of a theoretical model to establish an interpersonal process wherein trained play therapists use the therapeutic powers of play to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth and development."

More simply put, child play therapy is a way of being with the child that honors their unique developmental level and looks for ways of helping in the “language” of the child – play.  Licensed mental health professionals therapeutically use play to help their clients.

Play Therapy works best when a safe relationship is created between the therapist and client, one in which the latter may freely and naturally express both what pleases and bothers them in a language that suits the client, and allows the client to express their inner world in a way that aligns with their needs. A Play Therapist acknowledges the expression of the child in the therapy room is a witnessing of their inner world, and works with the child’s parents to better understand their child’s needs through the language of play. We enter into the child’s world in play to allow the child to teach us what their experience is. We do not teach a child how to be in our world as the therapist. We acknowledge that every behavior is an expression of a need, and we seek to understand a child’s needs to help those in the child’s world get those needs met outside the therapy room.

Play Therapy is used as a primary intervention or as supportive therapy for:

• Behavioral problems, such as anger management, grief and loss, divorce and abandonment, and crisis and trauma.

• Behavioral disorders, such as anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD), autism or pervasive developmental, academic and social developmental, physical and learning disabilities, and conduct disorders. 

 Research suggests Play Therapy is an effective mental health approach, regardless of age, gender, or the nature of the problem, and works best when a parent, family member, or caretaker is actively involved in the treatment process."  Child therapy is a family intervention. Work with an individual child will only progress so far if the family is not involved in the process.

We provide the following theoretical approaches to Child Therapy:

Child Centered Play Therapy (a perspective that considers the child’s inner world, and believes the child has the innate ability to heal themselves with the support of an unconditionally accepting adult, sets limits, and encourages imaginative, dramatic play)

Filial Therapy (family play therapy for children 3-12)

TraumaPlay (using neuroscience and play therapy to address trauma)

Digital Play Therapy (the use of online tools like Minecraft, Animal Crossing, Roblox, and other tools while addressing therapy needs through the core agents of change in play therapy)

Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy (used for older children, an approach to connecting thoughts, feelings and actions through applied playful, interactive interventions)

What is Drama Therapy?

As described by the North American Drama Therapy Association, “Drama Therapy is an active, experiential approach to facilitating change. Through storytelling, projective play, purposeful improvisation, and performance, participants are invited to rehearse desired behaviors, practice being in relationship, expand and find flexibility between life roles, and perform the change they wish to be and see in the world.”

Drama Therapy takes many forms, but most importantly, it is relational.   When a client heals within the therapeutic relationship, the experience guides a client through healing other relationships in their life as well- including the relationship with the self.   Trauma can be approached through metaphor.  Loss can be symbolized through ritual.  Theatre arts have been healing for centuries.  Drama Therapy applies this healing quality in a purposeful, playful way using distance safe enough to explore weighted topics, yet close enough to feel the impact of change.

Kimberly primarily practices a style of drama therapy called, “Developmental Transformations” (DvT).  DvT encourages resiliency through the instability of life.   As described by its creators, “DvT privileges improvisational and embodied interaction over exploration or role repertoire or story, and training focuses on one’s abilities to use themselves and their capacity to communicate in subtle ways, through their own bodily movement, speech, sounds, gaze, and personality.”  DvT permits clients to explore the feelings that arise through interpersonal and intrapersonal interaction, honor our experience, and grow our capacity for being with the difficulty that arises from our personal shadows.

What is Filial Therapy?

Filial Therapy could be described as a combination of both family therapy and play therapy.  Filial combines play and parenting skills to help address a family and child’s difficulties.  During the process, caregivers learn to provide structured, special play time with their child.  The work is both child-centered and attachment-focused.  Through the work, parents can become an advocate of healing for their child based on the power of the relationship enhanced by this specialized form of play.  The child is the director, and the parent enters the child’s play world as the actor.  Imagination, empathy, limit setting, and structure guide both participants through the experience, and a deeper relationship is frequently the result.

This is an evidence-based approach that remains solution-focused. Through consistent, parental-led special play time therapy sessions, the child develops stronger expressive skills and identifies feelings of empowerment, stronger attachment, and worthiness.