SERVICES
Play Therapy
Have you noticed your child is having trouble communicating their emotions and how they’re feeling? By using playtime as part of our counselling sessions such as puppets, toys, games, art, crafts, music, and even sensory swings, we can help your child explore their emotions.
What is Play Therapy?
Play therapy is a child-centered approach that we offer in every room at Bright Star. We use your child’s playtime to observe and get an understanding of their struggles, and then help them to explore their emotions and support with any unresolved struggle. Through play therapy, your child will learn new coping tools and how to label and process their feelings.
Benefits of play therapy include your child learning how to:
-
Develop coping strategies and creative problem-solving skills
-
Relieve stress
-
Process grief and loss
-
Process trauma
-
Expand their self-expression
-
Increase their knowledge of self
-
Lower their anxiety
-
Learn to fully experience and express their feelings
When to Use Play Therapy
While all ages can benefit from play therapy, we typically provide it to children and youth between ages 3 and 12.
Play therapy is helpful for situations such as:
​
-
Aggressive or angry behaviours
-
Anxiety, depression, and grief
-
Changes in family structure
How does it work?
Play therapy is integrated into all modalities we use at Bright Star Counselling. We've found that it's an effective child-centered approach. It makes our clients feel more comfortable with talking about their struggles during their counselling sessions.
Our clients have used play at Bright Star to act out their fears and anxieties, as a soothing mechanism, or to heal and problem-solve. We can observe a great deal in how your child interacts with different types of toys and how their behaviour changes with each counselling session.
​
We use these observations as a guide for treatment planning, personalizing their therapy to their individual needs, while their behaviours and goals are reassessed as their therapy plan progresses.
Who says therapy can't be fun?
If your child looks forward to their sessions at Bright Star Counselling and are excited about play time here, then play therapy during their sessions may be just what you’re looking for.
​
We also offer other modalities such as dog therapy or even virtual services. These are also adjusted according to you and your child and family's needs.