Child and Play Therapy – Meeting Children Where Words Can’t Reach
Children Communicate Differently
Children don’t always have the words to describe what they feel. Instead, they communicate through play, behaviour, silence, or sudden emotional outbursts. A child who seems angry might be scared. A child who withdraws might be overwhelmed. In my work with children, I begin not with questions, but with presence—with slowing down enough to listen to what a child is telling us without saying it out loud.
Play therapy provides children with a language they already know: movement, imagination, symbols, and spontaneity. Within the therapeutic space, play becomes a way for the child to express, experiment, and make sense of their inner world.
The Role of Sandplay
Sandplay therapy holds a special place in my work with children. A sand tray, along with a wide selection of miniature figures, offers a safe and contained world where children can create scenes that reflect their feelings, experiences, and hopes.
Often, children who find it difficult to talk—due to trauma, confusion, or simple developmental stage—are able to express profound truths through the sand. The figures they choose, the way they place them, the stories they tell or leave untold—all of this becomes part of our shared understanding.
As the therapist, I do not interpret the tray from the outside. I witness, I wonder, I track what unfolds. Over time, patterns emerge. Inner conflicts begin to resolve. The sand offers children both control and freedom—something many may not feel elsewhere in their lives.
More Than the Child: A Family System
No child lives in isolation. When I work with children, I’m always holding the family system in mind. This doesn’t mean blaming parents or dissecting family histories—but rather recognising that a child’s emotional life is shaped in relationship.
I often meet with caregivers as part of the process. Sometimes this means supporting them in understanding the child’s play. Other times, it means offering a space for the adult’s own emotions—guilt, worry, confusion—to be held with care.
We work together to find new ways of relating that support the child’s growth and healing. When the adults around a child feel steadier, the child often does too.
What Brings Families to Therapy
Parents and carers come to see me for many reasons:
Sudden changes in behaviour or mood
Trouble at school or with peers
Anxiety, nightmares, or fearfulness
Grief or family separation
Exposure to trauma or ongoing stress
Difficulty adjusting to new environments or identities
Sometimes there’s no clear event, just a sense that something’s not right. That’s more than enough reason to reach out.
A Space for the Child to Simply Be
Therapy with children isn’t about teaching them to be better behaved or more regulated. It’s about offering a space where they are allowed to feel—safely, freely, and without pressure. Where they can play out what’s been held in. Where someone is paying close attention.
In my room, children are not problems to be solved. They are people to be met.
If your child is struggling, or simply needing a space to work through life in their own way, I’d be honoured to support them—and you.