Why Play Therapy for your child?
One in three children and teenagers experience mental health difficulties such as anxiety, low mood and depression. The earlier your child can access effective help, the more quickly and easily difficulties can be resolved.
Registered with the British Association of Play Therapists (BAPT) specialising in Play Therapy and Filial Therapy, I offer comprehensive assessment and evidence-based therapy tailored to an individual’s needs.
The main types of proven research based therapy I offer are Play Therapy and Filial Therapy:
Play Therapy: A child friendly and child centred therapeutic approach based on play that is tailored to a child’s needs, which is why it is effective especially in boosting confidence and self-esteem.
Within the Play Therapy sessions children can use objects (e.g. small world toys, musical instruments etc.), materials (e.g. clay, sand, water etc.), and movement (e.g. role play) in a creative and playful way to aid processing emotions. When children are engaged in play this helps in supporting them to process their emotions with myself the Play Therapist along supporting them.
Filial Therapy: Is similar to Play Therapy in that the whole family are involved together and it is extremely effective in helping to provide positive change.
About Melanie
I have an MA in Play Therapy and I am registered with the British Association of Play Therapists (BAPT), I’m a Filial Therapist and a qualified primary school teacher. I use Play Therapy in a creative way to help children of all ages who require support with a range of social, emotional and mental health needs.
My creative and Child-Centred Play Therapy sessions primarily use play, arts, music and movement – helping children to express and understand the challenges they have experienced.
I work with children in a gentle and child lead way, in which the child can express their thoughts and feelings through play. I have a broad experience of working with children and teenagers with a wide range of emotional and behavioural issues, including: anxiety; depression; hyperactivity or difficulty concentrating and low self-esteem; difficulties at school – including those arising from going to a new school or nursery, family relationship changes – such as a new sibling, bereavement, parental separation; I also have experience of working with children who have special needs.
I particularly like to work outside as I find children readily respond with the natural world and helps them to relax and process their emotions.
Therapy Offered
I provide a flexible range of services. I usually start with one or two meetings with a parent/caregiver to learn in detail about your child and your worries for them. This can sometimes be enough to help and set you off in the right direction.
I can further offer to see your child for an assessment, which involves seeing him or her for a few times. Following this we can think together and discuss options for further therapy, if we jointly consider that it would be helpful and then can tailor sessions to your family’s needs.
For example, this might involve a fixed number of individual sessions for your child or more open-ended long-term therapy. You might prefer to have further sessions just as a parent(s)/caregiver(s), to have a supportive space to think about how you are helping your child at home or sessions for parent(s)/caregiver(s) and children altogether.
One possibility is a ten session family package. In this package I suggest an initial meeting and a final feed-back meeting for parents. The other sessions can be used flexibly for family members in various combinations. This sort of approach can be particularly useful when a family is struggling with a particular issue, for example a sleep or separation difficulty with child. It can also serve as an initial assessment to inform discussions about further work.
Therapy can take place within your home, child’s school or at my private therapy room in Southgate, North London N14
Get in Touch
Just send me a message via the contact form outlining the difficulties you would like help with (for your family or your child). I will then contact you to offer a free initial 10-minute phone consultation ahead of you booking an assessment appointment if suitable.
