Understand How Play Therapy Can Help Your Child
Maybe you’ve started to feel worried about how your child is responding to everyday situations. Transitions feel especially hard, your child avoids trying new activities, or tantrums and meltdowns seem to happen more often than with other children you know. Perhaps your child’s teacher, doctor, or another caregiver has shared concerns about your child’s behaviour and suggested counselling.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many parents reach out for counselling not because something is “wrong,” but because they sense their child is struggling and want to understand how to support them better. So now what?
Why Parents Often Feel Unsure About Counselling for Children
You might have some understanding of what happens during a counselling session. You may have attended counselling yourself and found it helpful to talk with a counsellor who supported you in processing thoughts, feelings, and reactions. Adult counselling often involves conversation, reflection, and insight.
But when you imagine counselling for your child, it’s hard to picture how that would work.
Your child isn’t going to want to sit in a chair and talk to an adult they don’t know about what’s happening inside them. They might not even have the words to explain how they feel to you, let alone during a 50-minute session. You may be thinking, There’s no way my child can do this.
These are very common and very valid concerns.
How Play Therapy Is Different From Talk Therapy
This is where play therapy comes in.
The first and most important clue to what happens in play therapy is the word play. Play is how children naturally learn about the world, relationships, and themselves. Long before children can explain their feelings with words, they express their inner experiences through play.
When children are playing, they are fully immersed in what they are doing. The play feels real to them. They are not “pretending” in the way adults often think of pretending.
To understand this, think about how you experience watching a movie or TV show. How many times have you jumped during a scary scene, laughed out loud at something funny, or cried during an emotional moment? You know the movie isn’t real, but in that moment, your body and emotions respond as if you are part of what’s happening.
This is similar to what happens for children during play.
What Children Are Communicating Through Play
When children play, they are often recreating experiences from their lives—things they are trying to understand, make sense of, or work through. Through play, children can explore different outcomes, roles, and responses in a way that feels safe and manageable.
Play allows children to:
Express emotions they don’t yet have words for
Explore fears, worries, or confusing experiences
Practice problem-solving and emotional regulation
Experiment with different ways of responding to challenges
For children who experience big emotions, anxiety, behavioural challenges, or difficulty with transitions or relationships, play can be a powerful window into their inner world.
What Happens During Play Therapy Sessions
During play therapy, your child’s counsellor carefully observes and joins your child in play in a way that feels supportive and respectful. The counsellor isn’t directing the play or asking your child to explain everything they are doing. Instead, they are paying attention to patterns, themes, and emotional cues that emerge naturally.
Your child’s counsellor may not know specific details, such as the name of a classmate your child is struggling with. However, they can often see themes related to:
Difficulty with friendships or social relationships
Feeling overwhelmed or out of control
Anxiety about separation, transitions, or new situations
A need for safety, connection, or reassurance
These themes provide important information about what your child is experiencing emotionally.
How Counsellors Support Change Through Play
One of the unique benefits of play therapy is that support and learning happen in the moment.
While your child is playing, when a challenging situation arises within the play, the counsellor can gently introduce new ideas, emotional language, or coping skills. This might involve helping your child notice feelings, offering alternative ways a character could respond, or supporting regulation when emotions become intense.
Because this happens within play—rather than through explanation or instruction—children are often much more receptive. They are learning through experience rather than being told what to do.
Over time, these experiences can help children:
Build emotional awareness
Develop regulation skills
Increase confidence and resilience
Feel more understood and supported
How Play Therapy Helps Parents and Caregivers
Play therapy isn’t only about supporting the child. It also helps caregivers better understand their child’s emotional world. Counsellors often work collaboratively with parents, sharing observations and offering guidance that aligns with the child’s needs and the family’s values.
This can help parents:
Make sense of their child’s behaviour
Respond with more confidence and compassion
Support emotional regulation at home
Strengthen the parent-child relationship
When children feel understood and supported both in therapy and at home, meaningful change becomes more sustainable.
When Play Therapy May Be Helpful for Your Child
Play therapy can be helpful for children who are experiencing:
Frequent tantrums or meltdowns
Anxiety or worry
Difficulty with transitions or change
Challenges with social relationships
Big emotions they struggle to express
Behaviour changes at home or school
Every child is unique, and play therapy meets children where they are developmentally and emotionally.
A Gentle, Child-Centred Approach to Healing
If you are considering counselling for your child, it’s important to know that they don’t need to be able to explain what’s wrong or talk through their feelings in order to benefit. Through play therapy, children are given a language that already feels familiar to them.
Play therapy offers children a safe, supportive space to explore their experiences, develop coping skills, and grow emotionally—without pressure to perform or explain.
If you’re feeling unsure but curious, that’s a meaningful first step. With the right support, play therapy can help your child feel more confident, regulated, and understood as they navigate the challenges of growing up.