Play Therapy St. Louis: What Parents Can Expect from Child-Centered Play Therapy
You’re interested in getting your child set up for Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) in St. Louis, but you aren’t quite sure what to expect. You want to know a little bit more about what you can expect before your child gets started.
In our last few blogs, we have talked with Compassionate Counseling St. Louis child therapist, Rachel Simons MSW, LMSW about how she uses CCPT with her clients and today Rachel is going to give you some more insight about what you can expect from CCPT.
What does a Child-Centered Play Therapy session look like?
In CCPT, the focus in on the creation of a safe, accepting, and non-judgmental space for the child. This environment helps children to express their feelings, thoughts, and experiences through play, which is their natural method of expression.
The primary role of the therapist in CCPT is to support the child’s autonomy while facilitating their emotional expression and growth. In a CCPT session, a child leads the way, with the therapist providing tracking and reflection of the content and feeling of what is being expressed. With that, a child is able to learn about new feelings and will be able to apply them to their life outside of the sessions. Some of the key principles of CCPT include:
Building rapport: Trust is foundational in CCPT, as it is with all other interventions!
Acceptance and respect: The therapist accepts the child as they are, without judgment.
Emotional Reflection: The therapist reflects the child’s emotions back to them in a way that helps the child recognize and understand their feelings.
Respecting the child’s problem-solving ability: CCPT emphasizes the child’s capacity to solve problems and make choices. Therapist will not do anything that a child can do for themselves (for example, opening a play-doh jar, using tape, etc...) leading in an increase in capacity.
Boundary setting: A child centered play therapist will set therapeutic limits to help clients foster their self-awareness and increase their world view.
Avoids value laden language: This would include phrases like "good job" or "you did awesome." Instead, child centered play therapists focus on the effort, as opposed to the outcome.
How do you assess if progress is being made in treatment?
There are several ways that a child-centered play therapist will assess for progress. The first of which is checking in with parents to find out how they are regulating in various aspects of their life (at home, at school, in sports, relationships, and of course in the therapy space).
Image Credit: Unsplash Kelly Sikkema @kellysikkema
Additionally, child centered play therapists will continuously be observing what play themes are present in a child's play. When and child begins to diversify their play themes, it is a sign that progress is being made. For example, when a child presents with play behaviors related to aggression, and begins to demonstrate mastery play behaviors, they are on the right track!
Lastly, when a child comes in and they appear bored, ask if there are any new toys, ask to leave early, it is a pretty good sign that they have been doing the work and are ready for graduation!
Dr. Brenna Hicks describes the 4 universal outcomes of CCPT as being increased increased self-esteem, increased regulation, increased worldview, and increased emotional vocabulary. When a child is able to reach these outcomes, they will naturally increase their ability to function well and have improved outcomes! You can hear more from Dr. Hicks about these outcomes right here.
Are parents involved in Child-Centered Play Therapy?
Yes! Parents are involved in the same way that they already are at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis. A child centered play therapist will regularly check in with parents and caregivers to find out how they are doing outside of sessions. However, in typical CCPT sessions, parents are not directly involved in the play space, that space is just for the therapist and child.
Parents are provided some parent coaching and additional resources in those check-ins. If more parent coaching is needed, those sessions can be set up with a parent coach, which are available at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis!
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What kind of materials does a therapist use with a child in Child-Centered Play Therapy?
Aggressive toys: Toy soldiers, dart guns, masks, foam swords, bop-it bag, pretend handcuffs
Real-life toys: Money, costumes, cars, trucks, baby dolls, dishes, animals, cash register, doll house
Creative toys: Sand, puppets, clay, scissors, craft sticks, markers
Art supplies: Paints, water, musical instruments, magic wand, dress-up clothes
Many CCPT therapists do not include any directive games in their play room, like Uno, Jenga, etc. They would also not include anything directive in their play space like worksheets.
How can you learn more about Child-Centered Play Therapy?
The website for the Association of Play Therapy (APT) has a "parent corner" that is especially helpful for caregivers! You can access it right here: https://www.a4pt.org/
How can you get your child signed up for Child-Centered Play Therapy?
At Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, Rachel Simons MSW, LMSW currently provides Child-Centered Play Therapy for St. Louis kids as young as 4 years old! Appointments with Rachel can be scheduled through our intake coordinator right here. You can schedule a free phone consultation to find out more about Compassionate Counseling St. Louis and get your child scheduled with Rachel to begin Child-Centered Play Therapy!
Curious to learn more about anxiety and anxiety-driven anger? Reach out to us at hello@compassionatecounselingstl.com. As child anxiety experts, we love working with kids, teens, college students and parents to help manage their anxiety, stress, and anger. Compassionate Counseling St. Louis is located in Clayton, MO and works with families throughout Creve Couer, Ballwin, Town and Country, Brentwood, and Ladue. We also provide online therapy Missouri wide to teens and college students. You can set up your first free consult on this website, on our consultation page.