​Play Therapy can vary greatly based on the interests, age, strengths and presenting problem.  
What can you or your child expect to experience in play therapy at different ages and stages?

• Initial sessions are focused on rapport building, creating a safe space where children and adults alike feel comfortable and want to return to again.
• Play therapy for pre-school age children often focuses on pretend play.  This can occur with a doll house, sand tray, floor play, puppets, imaginative play, or a combination or those activities. Child-Centered play therapy is utilized to help children play out experiences, feelings, and thoughts. Parents can also learn child-centered skills,  providing carry-over with "special play time" at home.
• Play therapy for school-age children may include specialized art activities and therapeutic games geared toward helping children identify and verbalize their feelings, or find fun ways to express anger while increasing coping.  
• Play therapy for teenagers may focus more on higher level activities such as expressive activities such as lyric/song analysis or collaging, therapeutic games such as feelings Jenga, or metaphorical work with sand trays.
• For adults, our integrative therapeutic offerings include sandtray, therapeutic art, EMDR, meditation, as well as talk therapy. For more details, please see our integrative therapies page for adults.​​

​According to research, "Although everyone benefits, play therapy is especially appropriate for children ages 3 through 12 years old (Carmichael, 2006; Gil, 1991; Landreth, 2002; Schaefer, 1993). Teenagers and adults have also benefited from play techniques and recreational processes. To that end, use of play therapy with adults within mental health, agency, and other healthcare contexts is increasing (Pedro-Carroll & Reddy, 2005; Schaefer, 2003)." (Association for Play Therapy, www.a4pt.org/?page=PTMakesADifference, 2016)