Lanarkshire Play Therapy CIC

13/08/2024

13/08/2024

First day back to school tomorrow for many children and young people in Lanarkshire.

A day of heightened, and mixed, emotions😁😦🥲😰😫😡🤢😴

For many tomorrow morning will be fun, exciting and full of JOY 🤩
But if tomorrow morning is a difficult one in your house take a moment to acknowledge those emotions… it’s ok to feel SAD, ANXIOUS, AFRAID or any other way about starting a new school or a new class, or leaving loved ones for the day.

For those children and young people who are struggling it can be helpful to know that the adults around them understanding their feelings.

Many children and young people will need to build trust in their new adults, they’ll need to feel safe in new surroundings, and that can take time. So be kind to each other and to yourselves 🥰

28/06/2024

Non-directive Play Therapy allows children to unconsciously process lived experiences and maintain a safe psychological distance from any upsetting situations they've experienced.

Playing enables children to reach a deeper level of understanding and interaction. Through these instances of play, children make sense of their world using the play to work through their difficulties. They learn other skills through different play activities again and again to gain mastery over activities they may have once found tricky.

28/06/2024

It's National PTSD Awareness Day. A day to remember the daily struggles and difficulties for those who have PTSD or C-PTSD.

For many years, the diagnostic criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder only recognised that adults experienced the symptoms of PTSD or C-PTSD. More recently, criteria for the diagnosis of children with PTSD or C-PTSD was included in the Diagnostic Manual, the DSM-V.

Play Therapy is a developmentally appropriate psychotherapeutic intervention for the treatment of children who've experienced trauma, and may be demonstrating the symptoms of PTSD.

Symptoms can be, but not restricted to, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares, easily triggered, irritability, or emotional dysregulation.

Play Therapy allows children to process their trauma safely and at their pace. The play enables them to maintain a psychological distance from their trauma.

27/03/2024

Through the Play Therapy relationship, the child feels accepted, and their feelings are acknowledged and validated.

As the relationship develops, they begin to feel a sense of safety. This allows the child to feel safe enough to feel 'big feelings' as they trust that the therapist will co-regulate and help to 'contain' them.

The hope is that the longer this positive relationship continues, the more likely they are to be able to generalise these skills with other 'safe' adults.

17/02/2024

Care Day celebrates those who are care experiences. Children, teenagers and adults often fill unseen roles as carers and this day aims to raise awareness and to recognise and support them 🙏

31/01/2024

Play itself is therapeutic!

®

05/01/2024

A Play Therapist demonstrates unconditional positive regard within the therapeutic relationship. This means that the child is fully accepted however they present upon entry to the play space.

This acceptance of the child's thoughts, feelings and play enables the child to feel heard and understood.

They use the metaphor of the play to communicate what is happening in their world to their therapist. The therapist's non-judgmental responses and reflections help the child make sense of these experiences through the safety of the play.

01/01/2024

Hoping 2024 is a year of peace and happiness for all x

23/12/2023