Trauma Therapy For Children
As adults, it can be difficult for us to understand how a child experiences trauma and how they deal with it. All people, regardless of age, experience distress and bad situations, and we all cope with that distress differently. With that in mind, the difference between distress and trauma can be difficult to distinguish, especially because we all have different responses to difficult situations. In this way, what may lead to trauma for some people and children may not lead to trauma for others.
Of course, very serious events like abuse, neglect, and violence can never be ignored, but when it comes to other negative events like family illnesses, car accidents, and bullying, some children may cope better than others. Because of this, assessing and treating a child’s trauma can be difficult, but also important because children deal with these things differently than adults. Adults have the tools to understand these things, talk about them, and often move through them. For children, they may not be equipped to work through their emotions, leading to further difficulties in the future.
Trauma can manifest itself in children in many different ways, including ways that adults process trauma. This may include avoiding behaviours or situations similar to those that caused the initial trauma, difficulty sleeping and bad dreams, toileting difficulties, general distress and fear, and even behaviour and aggression issues. In some situations, someone may incorrectly label a child as “being naughty,” when the behaviour is actually a coping strategy for underlying issues
How Play Therapy Can Help With Trauma
Children naturally communicate through play and, even if they don’t have the words to talk about their trauma, Play Therapy can be a way for a child to communicate a traumatic event. Through providing a child a safe and encouraging environment, a Play Therapist can observe a child, better understand what happened during the traumatic event or events, and determine the best way forward. This may include ongoing Play Therapy to help the child further explore and heal from their trauma, or even other forms of child counselling.
Beyond one-on-one Play Therapy, we also offer Filial Therapy. Filial Therapy is a model of Play Therapy that involves parents and caregivers, being in the room. Your Play Therapist then supports and teaches them on how to implement Play Therapy strategies at home with their children.
Whether through one-on-one Play Therapy or through Filial Therapy, we’ve seen that the process can be soothing for the adults in a child’s life. Often, we as adults can have feelings of distress or helplessness when our children are struggling. Play Therapy helps us understand what a child is going through, helps us find ways to help our children, and heal together.
