The brain is a neuroplastic and flexible organ capable of building new connections and growth. Play therapy helps to wire children’s brains for success, /some of the benefits that may be seen after play therapy include:
- Resolution and integration of personal challenges allowing children to move forward more freely
- Improvement of emotional language, the ability to express feelings in words
- Opportunity and freedom to choose new behaviours and ways of being
- Development of strategies for emotional regulation and an improvement in the ability to self-regulate
- Strengthening of the mind/body connection and the child’s ability to listen to their own body cues
- Development of resilience when new challenges arise – feeling more in control of difficult situations
- Building stronger connections and integration between parts of the brain the upstairs and downstairs brain as well as left to right
- Bringing together of the child’s developmental age and chronological age
- Reduce the hold that anxieties may have over the child
- Improve child’s self perception and perception of others
- Improve confidence and a growth mindset
Play Therapy offers children a space to work on their emotional and social wellbeing. some benefits may be obvious such as changes in big behaviours while others might include a more general sense of wholeness experienced by the child. The benefits of Play Therapy for each child will vary as they work on their individual challenges at their own pace and in their own way.
