Unlocking Healing and Growth: The Power of Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT)

October 2023

By Jennifer Baker, LPC, RPT, ACS; Active Therapeutic Solutions

 

Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is a developmentally attuned approach to helping children overcome emotional, behavioral, and social challenges. I have taken some thoughts and general ideas to share with you from several key leaders in the field that I have trained with: Gary Landreth, Iliana Gil, and Dan Siegel.

As you know, I have extensive training and experience in this area (since 2008 while I was in graduate school;), and I am an RPT (Registered Play Therapist). This certification requires me to maintain a standard of training in all the latest developments in the field, and I am a little nerdy, so I really enjoy it!

Research shows CCPT creates positive change by:

  1. Activating brain integration – CCPT facilitates neural connections between left-brain logic and right-brain emotions (Siegel). This links verbal insight with play experience.
  2. Enhancing attachment – The therapy relationship creates a secure base, allowing the child to explore feelings safely (Gil). This fosters emotional bonding and regulation.
  3. Developing skills – Guidance teaches coping, problem-solving, self-regulation, self-esteem, and relationship skills (Landreth). Play enables practicing these strengths.
  4. Processing trauma – Symbolic play provides a safe space to address frightening experiences indirectly (Gil). This aids in memory integration and fear reduction.
  5. Facilitating insight – Therapeutic limit-setting helps children gain awareness around emotions, needs, and choices (Landreth). This enables self-understanding.
  6. Regulating emotions – Expressing feelings through play calms the limbic system’s reactivity to stressors (Siegel). This builds affect (emotional) tolerance and modulation.
  7. Resolving inner conflicts – Playing out struggles gives children a sense of mastery over challenges (Landreth). This promotes self-efficacy.
  8. Creating new narratives – The therapist reflects the child’s emerging strengths, which the child internalizes as part of a positive identity (Gil).

To wrap it up, CCPT utilizes play’s natural role in child development to foster healing and growth in children facing emotional and behavioral difficulties, especially after COVID-19 lockdown or other traumas. The approach is a brain-wise, attachment-based, developmentally attuned, and evidence-backed way to help foster your child’s development and capacity for tolerating stressors.

Click here to learn more.

 


 

Jennifer Baker, LPC, RPT, ACS; Active Therapeutic Solutions

Jennifer has been working with children, adolescents, and families in a variety of settings, such as schools, private practice, and community agencies, for over a decade. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), a Registered Play Therapist (RPT), an Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS), EMDR Certified, and a Consultant in EMDR.

She uses EMDR 1 & 2.0, Somatic Experiencing, Polyvagal Theory, the Safe & Sound Protocol, Flash Technique, Ego States, Play Therapy, Trauma-Informed Yoga, and other creative therapies in her mental health private practice. To learn more, please click here to visit Jennifer’s website.

Photo credit: Lord

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