Introduction Play Therapy Practice Posted July 2010
Dear Colleague/ Parent
Please note that as of 1st April I have resumed full-time private practice in the Glenwood area. Although I have been in practice a long time and seeing clients over many years I have limited this to part-time practice. I am happy to announce that I am now available Mon – Friday on a full-time basis. I have tried to present some information/ guidelines around one area of my practice (Play Therapy) in order to assist you with referrals of children for Play Therapy.
I am interested in working with children using the medium of play therapy which is the therapy of choice for children between the ages of 4 – 11yrs. Children unlike adults are not able to explain or report to an adult the nature of their particular psychological difficulties. This does not mean that children don’t have feelings or experience times of enormous stress. As a parent you will know that they undoubtedly do. Children will often express their distress in ways that are not immediately apparent to the adults around them as indicative of some emotional distress eg they may ‘misbehave’, develop physical symptoms such as tummy aches or headaches, they may refuse to go to school or their school performance deteriorates, or they become socially withdrawn, become excessively clingy, or even regress to previous behaviors that are associated with a child much younger than they are (eg thumb-sucking, bedwetting) and generally they may just leave you with a sense of them being `unmanageable’.
Play Therapy is the medium of choice for children because they are able to express symbolically through the use of play, drawings, stories etc the particular difficulties/conflicts that they are having to contend with. Whilst play therapy might appear as “just playing’ to the inexperienced eye, it is actually children using a familiar means at their disposal to communicate their distress. Children obviously feel very comfortable in this modality of treatment as toys and games are very much a part of their everyday world at this level of development.
A typical play therapy treatment process may last between 12 – 20 sessions. Sessions are 45 minutes long and parents are given feedback usually after every 5 sessions. The feedback will include giving you feedback about how therapy is progressing, and an opportunity for you to give feedback about your child’s progress at home or school, as well as any new concerns. Feedback is usually 45 minutes and is billed as a separate session.
Children with the following difficulties may be referred:
All treatments begin with an initial interview with parents or the primary care-givers of the child concerned in order to elicit a detailed history of the child’s difficulties and developmental history. Thereafter an appointment will be set up to see the child concerned for an initial evaluation which may involve some drawing and assessment. A feedback session is then held where the parents are given my professional evaluation of the child’s difficulties and a recommendation for what treatment is required. So 3 sessions will have passed before Play Therapy (if it’s indicated) actually begins with the child concerned.
Although I have listed the above as areas of particular interest it is by no means meant to limit you in referral. I hope that this information will assist you and I look forward to working with you.
Sincerely
Fawn Daniels-Clark |