Play Therapy helps children work through difficult life events at a level matched with their developmental abilities. Using Play Therapy techniques children can learn to resolve trauma, decrease acting out behaviors and learn to cope with their emotions. Each session includes time in the “play room,” where they are free to express their emotions by participating in art, sand tray and talk therapy. Through these expressive and creative forms of therapy, children are able to come to understand their emotions when they often do not have the language or emotional ability to express their frustrations in words.
Parent-Child Interactions
Therapy is most successful when parents or caregivers are involved in the therapeutic process. Our therapists meet and collaborate with parents and care-givers to provide a tailored therapeutic experience for your child. Suncrest offers skills and helpful hints from programs such as Child-Parent Relationship Therapy and other theories to help ensure and continue success in the home.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children
Our therapists also utilize other child-specific theories to meet the needs of our clients. Therapy may focus on teaching Cognitive Behavioral Therapy skills to children to help them find more success in their environment. Such skills include relaxation skills, anger-management skills, feeling identification and regulation, and changing “thought problems.” These skills are taught through fun activities such as games, art and reading therapeutic children’s books.
Sandplay Therapy
Everyone has a story to tell… only in some cases, that story may be buried in the recesses of the mind. Sandplay Therapy is a technique used to unlock what is hidden in the unconscious mind. Through non-directive, non-verbal means, the sanitary beckons the unconscious mind to play out and organize its story through symbols and images. Suncrest strives to create a safe environment for these unconscious processes to take place. We believe that by providing a place of safety, a greater understanding of what we keep hidden can be uncovered, processed and nurtured.
Parenting Classes
Suncrest offers parenting classes. These classes offer a unique approach that puts the emphasis on the parent-child relationship, where other models stress teaching or problem solving. This training gives parents the necessary therapeutic skills to be an effective influence in the life of their child, understanding that the parents have more emotional significance to the child than the therapist. Parents will be taught how to be developmentally responsive to their child’s needs rather than their behavior. The focus is on that relationship as the vehicle for change.
CHILD-CENTERED PLAY THERAPY
Q: Why Play Therapy?
A: Play has been said to be the language of children. Gary Landreth, Ed., LPC, RPT-S said, “Play is a medium for expressing feelings, exploring relationships, and self-fulfillment.” Research has shown that Play Therapy is effective in helping children and individuals meet their goals and live a more fulfilling life.
Q: What is Play Therapy?
A: Child-Centered Play Therapists believe that children have an innate capacity to heal and grow. Through play, children can encounter, process and resolve any traumas or challenges that they are facing. With a present, accepting therapist, children can increase their self-esteem, learn self-mastery skills, reduce anxiety and depression symptoms, learn how to regulate emotions and process traumatic events in the playroom.
