- Play therapy is a useful way for kids to process emotions that they might not yet have the words for.
- Play therapy can be used to develop social skills, process trauma, or prepare for stressful events.
- Benefits include emotional regulation, building resilience, and healthy brain development.
Play isn't all fun and games for children — it can also help them develop social connections, foster independence, and learn creative thinking. Play also helps children process their emotions and regulate their behaviors, which is why it's a powerful tool when it's utilized for play therapy.
While adults in therapy process their feelings by talking about them, children are unable to do that because of their limited vocabulary. So, since the time of Sigmund Freud, play has been used in therapy to help kids process their thoughts.
"Play is a child's language and children use toys to communicate their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and experiences," says Ernesto Lira de la Rosa, a psychologist who works with Hope for Depression Research Foundation.
Here's why this approach to therapy isn't just a child's game, but actually a powerful approach to children's mental health.
What is play therapy?
Play therapy allows children to use dolls, paints, and other materials to act out their feelings and challenges. Then, they can play with new solutions or approaches in order to overcome psychological hardships ranging from coping with divorce, to processing trauma, to managing behavioral conditions like ADHD, says Dr. Gino Mortillaro, a child and adolescent psychiatrist with Kaiser Permanente.
"Play therapy allows the child to directly address their fears or anxiety and walk through what they think is appropriate coping behavior while receiving help from a medical professional or guardian," Mortillaro says.
Who can benefit?
Play therapy is used most often for kids ages 3-12, although older and younger people sometimes benefit too. Lots of children, including those with developmental delays and limited verbal communication, can benefit from this type of therapy, Mortillaro says.
This type of therapy can be used to help children:
- Process change, like divorce or death
- Manage feelings
- Develop social skills
- Handle behavioral challenges including those from conditions like Autism Spectrum Disorder or ADHD
- Process trauma from abuse or violence
- Prepare for upcoming stressful events, like a surgery
Types of play therapy
There are two main types of play therapy: directive and non-directive, Lira de la Rosa says. During directive sessions, the therapist picks the toys and type of play in order to guide the child through specific scenarios. In non-directive play, the therapist follows the child's lead and responds to issues that arise.
"Both types of play therapy are useful and a play therapist will make the decision to use either directive or non-directive play based on each child's needs and treatment goals," Lira de la Rosa says.
Within those types are also many different modalities of play therapy, or different ways of playing — including drawing, using puppets, playing board games, telling stories, and more. There are also various therapeutic techniques that inform how a provider approaches play therapy.
5 benefits of play therapy
Play therapy has many benefits that can help children's mental and emotional health, Lira de la Rosa says.
"Play therapy can help children learn how to relate to others, follow rules, develop problem-solving skills, or help them value and respect themselves," he says. "The beauty of play therapy is that it can help children with many presenting concerns."
Here are some specific benefits of play therapy.
1. It teaches kids to regulate their emotions
During play therapy, kids learn how to regulate their emotions by doing so in a playful, controlled setting. That's particularly beneficial for children who have underlying conditions that can make emotional regulation difficult.
"Children with problematic behavior disorders such as ADHD, anxiety, or disruptive behaviors see the most benefit from this type of therapy," Mortillaro says.
2. It builds resilience
Play therapy teaches children resilience, or the ability to process and adapt to challenging experiences, Mortillaro says. Resilience can provide protection against the health impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs.
3. It encourages healthy brain development
"Play is key to advancing neurologic development or plainly, healthy brain development," Mortillaro says. Play therapy can encourage that, especially for kids who have experienced trauma, which can interfere with normal brain development.
4. It enhances creativity (and may reduce aggression)
Having a healthy imagination is an important mental health and problem solving skill, even for adults.
"Whether it's imagining how your boss will react to a line in an email or how your friend will react to something you do on the playground, imagination helps us see what others might feel about our actions," and how we can respond, Mortillaro says.
Research has found that play therapy can boost creative thinking while also reducing aggression among preschoolers.
5. It can strengthen the parent-child relationship
Mortillaro often teaches parents of clients how to do their own form of play therapy at home, for 15 minutes a day. This is a way of connecting to their children. "I've seen great benefits in improving parent-child relationships," he says.
What to expect during a play therapy session
There's a lot of work from parents and professionals that happens behind the scenes to make play therapy a success.
Before your child meets their therapist, the parent(s) will complete an intake providing lots of information about what brings the child to therapy, and the goals the child and/or family are working toward.
The provider might also suggest a pre-clinical assessment, which involves testing or observations to help them get more information on your child.
During the introduction phase of therapy, the child and provider meet, and play, together.
"Some play therapists may first play with the child and observe the play before they begin to develop structured play therapy sessions," Lira de la Rosa says. "Some play therapists will first work with the child and then gradually invite parents and other individuals in the child's life to join the play."
Whatever approach your therapist takes, expect some bumps in the road. While many kids find play therapy fun at first, it's normal for patients to go through a phase where they have a negative reaction, like not wanting to go to therapy.
"Play therapy is unique and each child will have a different experience," Lira de la Rosa says. Because of that, it's important to check in with your provider regularly about what to expect and how treatment is progressing.
How to find the right play therapist for your child
Finding the right therapist is key to having a beneficial experience with play therapy, Mortillaro says. That can be tricky, since the parents and child must all feel that the therapist is a fit.
To try and ensure a good match, follow these steps from Lira de la Rosa:
- Interview multiple providers
- If your child has a particular health concern, like ADHD, seek out a provider who has used play therapy to treat that.
- Ask questions about the type of play therapy the provider uses, including whether it's structured or unstructured.
- Ask if the provider follows a particular theory of therapy that informs how they do play therapy
The Association for Play Therapy maintains a directory of therapists who have additional credentials around play therapy.
Insider's takeaway
Play therapy allows children to identify and explore emotional reactions that they may not be able to verbalize. While the therapy sessions involve the child, play therapy often benefits the whole family system.
"Play therapy is an incredibly useful tool for therapists, their patients and their patients' caregivers," Mortillaro says. "Through play, essentially, we can allow the children to role play out their experience and alter their script" in order to respond in a different, healthier way in the future.