Play Therapy

What is Play Therapy?

Play and Creative Arts therapy is a developmentally sensitive, evidence-based form of psychotherapy for children, young people and adults. It is characterised by being action-oriented, body based and experiential. Play is the child’s natural medium of self-expression.

Play and the use of creative and expressive arts allows the individual a safe distance for emotions and sensations to safely arise, be explored and processed. Play and creative therapies work with both conscious and deeper, subcortical unconscious aspects that drive our lived experience.

The elements of playful exploration and creative expression can mitigate and help integrate sensations and emotions coming from the lower subcortical brain and body so clients can process and integrate in a deep way and yet usually stay in their window of tolerance (our capacity to stay regulated).

Core elements of Play and Creative arts therapy offers clients perceived control, reward, and manageable stress, these are some of the essential ingredients identified for successful therapeutic interactions (Perry 2006).

There are many models of Play and Creative arts therapy. As an Integrative therapist trained in many stress and Trauma informed brain and body wise modalities Gayle follows an integrative and dynamic model. Perry and Gaskil (2006) note how play therapy approaches from all theoretical perspectives are compatible with much of the current neurological research.

“Toys are children’s words, play is their language” – Landreth

What’s in the space?

Play and Creative Arts therapists use a variety of tools to allow for full bodily expression to help ignite the imagination and offer regulation. The room will include sand trays and a range of miniature toys and objects that can be used for symbolic expression, clay, paint, art materials, puppets, whole body regulatory tools such as yoga balls and more.

Surely talking is necessary?

A wealth of research from the field of Neurobiology has found that talking therapies alone are often unable to reach deeper, subcortical areas of the brain/body where stress and trauma are held. The higher cortical areas of the brain involved in thought and speech will shut down as a survival mechanism when facing overwhelming stress. For emotionally painful material which often involves physiological sensations or the lack of, words are often inadequate, not accessible and not enough. In many cases, talking is the distraction.

Research (Van der Kolk, Malchiodi, Perry) has found that limbic system therapies which includes Play and the Creative/expressive arts can reach far deeper, subcortical, less conscious areas of the brain/body where unprocessed stresses and developmental traumas are actually stored. For children this is even more pertinent as children do not naturally ‘talk through’ their issues, they naturally play them out. Play and Creative Arts therapy can also be used effectively to help process early pre-verbal experiences of Trauma and attachment issues.

What does Play/Creative Arts therapy help with?

Registered Play and Creative Arts Therapists are highly trained and this form of therapy can help children, young people and adults with a wide range of issues including: Developmental Trauma, single event traumas, phobias, stress, loss, anxiety, bullying, chronic illness, eating disorders, rigidity, preverbal trauma, disability and more.

Our Play Therapy Specialist

Gayle Thomas works as our Integrative Therapist, bringing a compassionate, creative, and somatic approach to her work with pupils. She draws on a wide range of brain/body-informed methods, integrating them to meet each pupil’s unique needs in a client-centred, non-pathologizing way.

Her practice pays close attention to the “bodily narrative” pupils carry – often beneath conscious awareness. Through expressive arts, play, and somatic therapies, Gayle helps give voice to these non-verbal, less conscious aspects of experience. This process can awaken imagination, open pathways to growth, and foster a deeper connection to oneself and one’s body.

Research in neuroscience shows that overwhelming stress and unresolved trauma are often stored in the subcortical regions of the brain and held as implicit, bodily memories. By following the body’s innate wisdom and resources, Gayle creates a powerful portal for healing and moving forward. Her work is grounded in contemporary findings from interpersonal neurobiology and Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory.

Gayle works with clients of all ages and addresses a wide spectrum of issues – from mild challenges to severe conditions such as PTSD, complex developmental trauma, and attachment difficulties. She is a registered member of the BACP and adheres to its high ethical standards through regular supervision.