Finding the right therapy that works for your child or teen can be tricky. Every child is unique and may have different goals, attention spans, and levels of maturity. Children may complain about going to therapy because they may not fully understand how it can help them - or they may not realize that they need help at all. As their parent, all you want to do is get your child the help they need. Kids like to engage in things that entertain them. Children can have short attention spans and it can be hard to keep them focused. Introversion and shyness is another thing that many adolescents may struggle with.
Therapy can help with things like developing coping skills, communication tactics, realistic life goals, and helping you to achieve the best version of yourself. When a child is going through a negative feeling, experience, and/or mindset they may not even fully understand that they’re being negatively affected. Therapy can help your child in many different ways.
Anchor Therapy is a counseling center in Hoboken, NJ with mental health therapists specialized in helping children, teens, adults, couples, and families with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, trauma, life transitions, and more. Anchor Therapy is accepting new clients and is now providing in-person sessions and teletherapy sessions to residents of New Jersey, New York, and Florida.
Therapy might be the right option for your child if your child is experiencing:
Behavioral issues
Emotional issues
Anxiety (test-taking, social, attachment)
Low self-esteem
School issues
Trauma related issues
Anger
Impulsivity
Dysphoria towards their gender and/or identity
Sleep issues
Repetitive self-destructive behaviors (e.g., skin-picking)
Issues with concentration
Difficulty dealing with parental separation/divorce
There’s many different forms of therapy. Therapy can be very versatile. A great evidence-based form of therapy that checks all the boxes of a child’s needs can be play therapy. You just have to find the right style of therapy that suits your child’s needs
Play therapy can help your child in a lot different ways and teach them new skills, such as how to:
Behave in a more healthy manner
Understand their emotions
Control impulses
Respect themselves and other people
Express their feelings
Solve problems
Communicate with others effectively
Express, understand, and cope with traumatic experiences
As a parent, sometimes you can only do so much for your child no matter how hard you try. Play therapy is a great outlet for your child and can open up many new perspectives and strategies for them to use on a daily basis.
Play therapy itself is more of an umbrella term. General play therapy can include things that children typically enjoy playing with, such as building blocks and puppets/dolls. Children are taught to use these fun and easily accessible items to nonverbally communicate how they’re feeling. For example, children may roleplay their immediate household through dolls - showing their everyday life and family dynamic. This can help the Play Therapist to get a better understanding of what the child is experiencing even if the child struggles to verbally express their emotions.
There are many different subcategories for more specific forms of play therapy, such as:
Art Therapy
Sand Tray Therapy
Music Therapy
Games and Video Games
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
As a parent, you can even be a part of the process and attend sessions with your child. Different forms of play therapy work for different kids with various personality types and interests. Since there’s so many different types of play therapy, it’s important to consider what your child would be the most interested in. Also, remember that therapy doesn’t always work right away. It may take your child time to get used to the therapy and get comfortable enough with the therapist.
Promoting Creativity Through Art Therapy
Art Therapy in itself is extremely open-ended and can be used by children and adults alike! Art therapy is a great therapy to consider for children with creative minds. Your child doesn’t need to be an art expert to excel in art therapy - just having an interest in art is enough.
Art Therapists are well-educated and trained in not only therapy/counseling but also art and art expression. Anchor Therapy has trained therapists that offer Art Therapy for children and adults as an option. Art Therapy can specifically target emotional functioning, mood, and behavior. It has been shown to help children with developmental and mental disabilities, PTSD, certain behavioral conditions, and speech impairments.
An Art Therapist will guide your child through a therapeutic creative process that can help with:
Improving your child’s overall well-being
Lowering anxiety and stress levels
Enhancing self-awareness
Strengthening relationships with you and your child
Advancing social skills
Art therapists are trained to use art and artistic expression for therapy purposes. Even so, an art therapy session isn’t exactly an art lesson. Rather than being taught more advanced art techniques your child will be able to nonverbally communicate their feelings and issues through art expression. A typical session of Art Therapy isn’t fully guided in a step-by-step process. The freedom of expression, thought, and emotion is key.
An art therapist may conduct a session with your child that includes steps such as:
Starting by describing the goal of the session
Explaining that there is no “bad” art
Helping the child find their preferred medium (e.g. drawing)
Guiding the session with open-ended questions, encouraging your child to express their answers on the canvas
Giving your child “homework” to do at home before the next session
Still not fully convinced that art therapy could be the right choice for your child? Check out our blog, “Is Art Therapy Actually Effective?” to learn more.
2. Encouraging Expression Through Sand Tray - A Type Of Play Therapy
Sand tray therapy is considered to be a combination between sand, art, and talk therapy - where the child uses the sandbox tools as a communication tool. It’s just another way for children (and even teens) to express their thoughts and feelings creatively. Sand tray therapists use a sandbox as the primary medium. They encourage children to use available tools, toys, and water, to turn the sandbox into miniature worlds and scenarios - that may resemble their real life. Your child will basically display what’s going on inside their head through the use of the sandbox.
Sand tray therapy can help your child in many different ways, including addressing things such as:
Trauma/PTSD
Anger
Learning disabilities
Communication
Sand tray therapy is considered to be extremely symbolic and calming and can even help with stress relief. The therapist may encourage your child to think freely and for themselves rather than realistically. From an outside perspective as a parent, what your child uses the sand to illustrate may not make a lot of sense so it’s important to remember that your child is bringing their unconscious thoughts and feelings into a three-dimensional space.
The therapist will read and interpret what the child is expressing and use that information to help them with whatever issues they’re presenting. After interpreting the child’s sand art, the child may begin to understand the connection between their inner world and the world they’ve created. It may take many sessions to fully get to the bottom of your child's needs and sometimes sessions with a sand play therapist may last years if helpful enough.
It may be hard for your child to envision what they want and need in their life. The sandbox is a great way for your child to non-verbally express their own view of what’s happening around them. The scenarios they create in the sandbox don’t exactly need to be make-believe and can be realistic. Sand tray therapy can show your child that the changes they make in their sand world are possible in the real world around them.
3. Using Music Therapy As A Fun Way To Address Problems
Music therapy isn’t meant only for people who know the in-and-outs of music composition and instruments. Any music-enjoyer has the ability to excel in music therapy. Music therapy can help your child or teen with a lot of different things - especially with reducing stress.
Other than helping your child manage stress and stressful situations, music therapy can help with:
Exploring emotions
Reducing anxiety and depression
Regulating mood
Strengthening communication skills
Improving language skills (and possibly comprehension)
Developing coping and problem-solving skills
Unlike the other previously mentioned types of play therapy, there is quite a bit of conversation with music therapy. The music therapist may need to ask your child questions to get to know them better before starting therapy. Your child’s music therapist will use this information to create an appropriate setting and experience for each session.
When planning out potential goals for a session, music therapists may consider certain things about your child such as their:
Age
Triggers
Motor, cognitive, and social skills
Musical background, skills, and preferences
During a music therapy session, the therapist will offer your child to participate in a variety of different music-related activities. These activities may include:
Creating music together
Writing lyrics
Singing
Playing an instrument
Dancing to music
Listening to music
Each session’s effectiveness can help the therapist to determine what works best for your child or teen. You, your child, and the music therapist can work together to determine the session plan and how long you would realistically need to meet.
4. How Games and Video Games Can Be Used Positively For Your Child’s Mental Health
The category of games being included in therapy can range from things like board games and cards to handheld video games. Games can be incorporated into standard therapy with a therapist that your child has been seeing for awhile. If your child currently has a therapist and you are interested in games as a form of play therapy, talk to their therapist about it. If you’re looking for a therapist, make sure to discuss incorporating games into sessions as an option.
If your child enjoys games, this can be a great way to keep your child from getting overwhelmed or overstimulated during a therapy session. Games that your child enjoys can make your child feel more comfortable and safe and can even keep your child motivated during a session. Certain games can even be stress-relieving.
If you’re looking for games that may help your child with stress-relief, check out our blog: “8 Video Games That Help With Stress Relief”.
Games are meant to be fun and can even be played between the therapist and child. Playing board games, cards, or multiplayer video games during sessions can actually bring the therapist and your child together. A therapist showing interest in your child’s interests can make your child feel that the therapist does care about what they like and how they feel.
Game play in therapy can be useful for a lot more than just reducing stress. For example, many therapists use games during therapy to see how kids react to winning and losing games and to help them cope.
Using games during therapy can help your child in a lot of different ways other than stress-relief, including:
Coping with frustration
Decision-making
Problem-solving
Following rules
Social skills
Impulse control
5. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) And How It Can Help You & Your Child
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) helps to specifically target children with behavioral problems. PCIT is evidence-based and can be discussed with your current or future mental health professional. During a PCIT session, you and your child will be “coached” by a therapist who will be observing how you interact and play with your child. PCIT can be done through a one-way mirror so that the child doesn’t know the therapist is there. As you interact with your child, the therapist will assess the interactions and offer you insight and coaching skills so that you can adapt to and better manage your child’s behavior.
Normally, PCIT sessions consist of 2 separate phases.
The first phase of treatment focuses on the attachment style between you and your child. The therapist will try to help you establish a secure and warm relationship with your child.
This relationship will encourage your child to stray away from attention-seeking behaviors and will help them with things like:
Attention span
Self-esteem
Pro-social behaviors
2. The second phase of PCIT sessions will teach you new skills to effectively handle and address your child’s behavior.
In this phase, your child may:
Develop a better understanding of your limits
Respect your directions and rules
Learn appropriate behavior - especially outside of the household
PCIT on average takes 12-20 sessions for the parent to feel they’ve learned everything they can from it. Here at Anchor Therapy, we offer parent-child counseling if your child is under 6 years old. We will help support you through the stress you may experience as a parent.
How To Find The Right Form Of Play Therapy For Your Child
There are so many different forms of play therapy that weren’t even mentioned in this blog. It can seem overwhelming to find the right fit for your child. You won’t exactly know until you start going through the process. If your child is already seeing a counselor or a therapist, ask them about play therapy and what they may recommend.
If your child has never been to therapy or counseling, things that may help find the right form of play therapy can be:
Your child’s interests
Your child's emotional and social maturity
Your child’s tendency to verbally communicate
Your relationship with your child
If you’re already in therapy, play therapy can actually be integrated into your current sessions. I mentioned games earlier, but there are even other forms of play therapy such as Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy (CBPT) and trauma focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). These integrated therapies are meant to target more specific needs of your child. It’s important to consider not only what you want for your child, but also what your child wants and needs from therapy when choosing the best option. Finding what works for your child can be trial and error. Play therapy is considered to be low risk, high reward - so don’t be afraid to try these forms of play therapy out.
If you enjoyed this blog and are interested in learning more about play therapy, check out these other related blogs:
Olivia Charletta
is studying Human Services with a concentration in Clinical Services at the University of Delaware. She’s a Junior and plans on getting her Master’s after she graduates and to learn more about children with psychological disabilities. In the future, she wants to work as a therapist who specializes in play therapy.
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