Art, Play, Body Movement and Music Based Approaches to Treatment

 Lori Gill Psychotherapy ~ Holistic Wellness for Health understands the benefits that creative approaches to therapy can offer allowing for non-intrusive expression of feelings and emotions.  As a result we offer alternate treatment approaches for children, youth, and adults through the use of creative methodologies such as art, sand, play, and therapeutic games focused counselling. 

ATTCH provides a play therapy room, art therapy room, and body movement area with specialized equipment, toys, and activities. These items have been carefully selected to encourage creativity and natural behaviours providing opportunity for optimal observation and assessment.   

 Play focused therapy is a therapeutic approach which provides an opportunity for children to ‘play out’ feelings and problems,  using toys to symbolically represent their inner and outer worlds.  Play is a child’s natural language and  way of making sense of their experiences-through the use of play, the therapist can enter the child’s world and communicate with the child at his or her level. 

By relying less on language, play focused therapy is a developmentally sensitive treatment modality, and particularly appropriate for children who have experienced trauma. During trauma, the verbal part of the brain shuts down- the experience is stored at a sensory level and words become inaccessible. Play is experiential and allows these memories to be expressed and explored non-verbally so that they can eventually be integrated into a more verbal narrative.  Through the appropriate combination of acceptance, attunement and structure, the therapeutic relationship creates a sense of safety. The therapist follows the child’s lead, thereby honouring a child’s pace and readiness to explore trauma-related themes. 

Children project their feelings and experiences onto the toys, creating a psychological distance from which to explore traumatic material. Play therapy allows the child to externalize their story, where it can then be better understood and reworked therapeutically, creating a sense of mastery. This empowerment is especially important for a child following trauma, which typically leaves children feeling powerless and vulnerable. During play therapy, the therapist conveys a deep respect for children’s ability to solve problems and make choices, restoring a sense of self-efficacy. 

In play focussed therapy, traumatized children learn:

• that the world can be safe, consistent and predictable
• that feelings (both positive and negative) are acceptable
  
• to trust and attach to other people
  
• to be creative and resourceful in confronting problems
• develop a greater capacity to cope
• to experience behaviours and feelings of control/mastery
• to develop an internal source of evaluation
• to be more self-directed, responsible and autonomous
  
• to develop an enhanced sense of self and become more self-accepting

(adapted from Landreth 2002)     

 Sand tray therapy-where the conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche meet

Sand tray therapy is an expressive play process,  which may be static or dynamic in nature.  The child 
is invited to select items of interest from a collection of miniatures representing various themes (ie family, animals, fantasy, etc), which take on whatever meanings the child assigns to them. He or she is then instructed to create a world in the sand tray in a way that feels right to them. This process allows the child to symbolically create their inner and outer worlds, so that personal experiences can be translated into a concrete, three dimensional form. 

The therapist observes the child’s story as it unfolds, and honours the child’s desire to talk or not talk during the process. There is no interpretation or analysis necessary as the therapeutic value lies in creating the world and having this witnessed by the therapist. 

Benefits of sand tray therapy:

• sand is a familiar medium with inherently soothing qualities
• is kinesthetic and allows sensory trauma memories to be released
• increases capacity for self-awareness as unconscious material comes to consciousness
• enhanced communication 
• once externalized the experience can be viewed from a different perspective and reworked allowing the child to move towards resolution and a sense of mastery
• provides safe psychological distance from which to deal with emotional pain 
• provides a sense of catharsis. 
• the sand tray provides a sense of containment for overwhelming experiences