Play therapy can be an effective tool for school counselors to help students express themselves and work through challenges. It allows children to communicate experiences and feelings through play rather than words. The document outlines several key points about play therapy in schools: - Play therapy promotes cultural understanding and allows students from diverse backgrounds to express themselves nonverbally. - It has benefits like building trust and relationships, empowering self-expression, and helping children overcome emotional difficulties. - Different play therapy techniques are suited to different developmental stages from pre-K to high school. - The stages of child-centered play therapy generally move from warm-up to aggressive to regressive to mastery as children's feelings are expressed and

1. PLAYTHERAPY IN
SCHOOL
COUNSELLING

2. Prepared by: MAISAM ETAMMAR
Educational development
B.Ed. 6th semester
Karakorum International university Gilgit.

3. Introduction
■ Play therapy
A form of counselling in which play is used as a means of helping
children express or communicate their feelings.
e.g toys, art materials, games and other play media.

4. Uses of play therapy
■ School counsellor can help students and overcome many challenges.
E.g social and academic growth
■ Providing services and programming for students.
■ Allow and enable children to communicate their experiences and inner
awareness in a native language.
■ Provide toys, art supplies, games and other.

5. Play in school counselling
■ Play therapy promote cultural. Because students diverse
cultures, socio-economic status and varying academic and
language abilities.
■ Student’s cultural and life experience, which are often difficult
to verbalize, can be expressed through play.
■ Elementary students who received individual child-centered
play therapy experience a decrease in problem and stress
with teachers. e.g
Taiwanese children who experienced and earthquake,
found anxiety and suicide risk then the control group
who did not participate in the school-based play therapy

6. Benefits of play therapy in school
■ Express felling of satisfaction, empowerment, independents.
■ Promote self expression
■ Trust and relationship will be build and over come emotional difficulties.
■ Teacher and student have to opportunity to build strong working
relationship.

7. Play therapy in elementary, middle and secondary setting
For understanding this level we can understand the jeans piaget’s theory:
■ Pre-operational stage (birth to 18-24 month)
Magical thinking, unlikely create explanation, toy-based techniques
■ Concrete operational stage (2 -7 year)
Ability to reason and organize their own thought.
Choice for their own interest, and give more abstract activities.
Art expression, photography, sculpture creation and drawing.
■ Operational stage (7-11 year)
Emotional attached, provide music etc.

8. Stages of child-centered play therapy
■ The warm-up stage:
Preparation of child, motivate, build relationship, trust.
■ The aggressive stage:
Increase aggressive behavior of both physical and verbal demonstration
such as shouting, stomping, defiance or throwing things.
■ The regressive stage:
Developmentally regressive behavior such as acting like a baby or
showing helplessness.
■ The mastery stage:
Children verbally express or use play to express their confidence in
themselves. Independent behavior, children may completely play in age
appropriate activities.

9. Challenges and limitation in the play therapy
■ Misconception about play therapy. E.g some concern about play therapy is the
cost for supplies, creating a mobile play therapy kit that is easily transportable
to different rooms and even different schools and that can be used for
individuals and group counselling.
■ Common misconception is that play therapy is only appropriate in elementary
school setting.
■ Play therapy tools are necessary for use with adolescents.
■ Play therapy environment provides a safe place for adolescents to express and
explore their feelings and experience.
■ Session can be structured around non-academic times, time periods as short as
30 minutes.
■ Challenge for counsellor; struggle in task or to express difficult feelings. Adult
feel uncomfortable and shame.
■ Allowing and encouraging students to make their own decisions enables
students become empowered and grow in self-reliance and self control.

10. Case study
■ Danielle is a 9-year old African American female in the third grade who was
referred to the school counsellor by her classroom teacher. Her teacher reports that
Danielle’s grades and behaviors have drastically deteriorated in the past month. As a
student with average test score and above-average grades, Danielle has been an active,
participating student in class in the past. Recently, Danielle has been vacillating
between daydreaming in class and having small outbursts when redirected by her
teacher. She straggle with her peers and close to a small group of girls that she has
known since she moved to this school district in first grade. Recently, she has been
struggling with her friends and exhibiting behaviors marked by verbal fights, playing
alone, and/or refusing to talk to anyone.

11. Reasons behind
■ Danielle father recently left the home and has not returned or contacted
the family.
■ Her mother started that, prior to leaving, Danielle father had been
verbally abusive to Danielle and her three younger sisters, and they
witnessed domestic violence between their parents.

12. Ms. Kenya (school Counsellor)
■ The school counsellor contacted the parent by phone and received written
permission to meet with her.
■ 30 minutes individually weekly meetings after consulting with the classroom
teacher about the best time of day to meet with Danielle.
■ First session (warm-up stage)
■ The goal was to introduce Danielle to the counselling environment.
■ Freedom to express feeling in the necessary counselling setting.
■ Ms. Kenya stated “ this is a play area and you are well come to paly toys”.
■ Time set, everyTuesday 1:00 to 1:30.

13. ■ This introduction encourage to being leading and freedom and choice to play
toys.
■ Danielle travel around the play room, and choice art material and papers. She
asked to counsellor “ I need you to get for it me?”
■ In this cause, many adults wants to immediately help, which promote
supportive environment and child abilities to problem solve which help
promote empowerment and mastery.
■ Provide support and make her own decision, Danielle can grow and self-
confidence and self-reliance.
■ He can draw a big picture on the paper, and said “She is my friend Shayla”. She
put the marker in her fist and began pounding the marker all over the paper and
stopped to look and continued to hit the paper with the marker, and with tears
in her eyes. Said “ Shayla doesn’t like me anymore.
■ She picked up a new piece of paper and decorated it with items such as
rainbow, hearts, and starts for the rest of the session.

14. Moves from warm-up-stage to aggressive stage
■ E.g she does not want to go back to class and that she wants to continue to
play.
■ Danielle was painting and began painting black lines over her picture stating.
She pulled the paper off the easel and began ripping the paper and throwing it
around the room screaming.
■ She may react with aggressive behaviors. Ms. Kenya accepting her feelings,
and allowing her to express these feelings, while setting limits in a safe
environment.

15. Moves aggressive stage to regressive stage
■ She playing with doll set, she began crawling on the floor and talking in a baby
voice, waaa….waa ( making crying sound).
■ I want my mommy and daddy. And told her story.
■ Danielle has discovered her own internal strength and has constructed
organized meaning of complex situation.

16. Mastery stage
■ Danielle was able to express to her feelings in an excepting a safe environment,
which allow Danielle to develop confidence in an acceptance of her self, she
communicated her science of mastery through play. Using art supplies,
creature a picture and stated look at my picture of my family. How I am helpful
and I am helping my sister.

17. Question ??
End