Adult counselling can involve discussing issues, expressing feelings and analyzing thought patterns. Kids typically can’t do those things very well, until they are older. That’s why therapists who work with kids (3-11), usually do so using a variety of indirect methods that get at what a child is thinking or feeling, without simply asking questions. One of these approaches is called “Play Therapy,” but it’s a lot more than simply playing games. It is a systematic way of allowing kids to talk freely about what is going on in their lives in the context of what they do best – play!

        Using a combination of guided and free-play activities, counsellors can work to uncover what is really going on inside a child. Although some counsellors like to work with the child apart from the parents, at Freedom Counselling, we see the value of being able to have the parents involved in the process as much as possible. After all, the parents are the most important people in the child’s life – not the therapist. Feel free to ask more about how play therapy might benefit your child.