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- Neurobiology of Play Therapy
Georgie Wisen-Vincent, LMFT, RPT-S
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist MFC# 51784
NPI# 1801044383 Tax ID# 621076819
Psychotherapy Services
The Center for Connection
275 E. California Blvd., Pasadena CA 91106
Tel (562) 201-7444 Email georgie@petitplay.com
Title: The Neurobiology of Play Therapy: Child-Centered Play-Based Approaches that Enhance Sensory Integration and Emotional Regulation for the Developing Brain
Summary of the presentation: Over the last decade, we have seen a significant trend toward integrating the neurobiological perspective when creating more effective therapeutic interventions for our clients. Play therapists have long been aware of the therapeutic benefits of play in working with children, but how does play specifically nurture healthy brain development? And how can we understand the neurobiology of play experiences that happen in the therapy room to optimize a child’s sensory integration and emotional regulation? In this two hour training, you will learn specific play practices designed to improve sensory and emotional functioning targeted to meet the diverse treatment needs of children, especially those children who seem impossible to work with from a cognitive-behavioral talk therapy model. Drawing on concepts of interpersonal neurobiology, the benefits of child-centered, brain-building play interventions to achieve relational attunement, neural integration, and the development of a fully functioning sense of self will be clearly defined.
At the end of this 2 hour training, participants will be able to:
- 1. Describe Play Therapy theory and principles applicable to a child-centered model of therapy.
- 2. Recognize the tools and materials necessary to use with clients in order to provide child-centered interventions that improve neural functioning.
- 3. Utilize direct interventions designed to build up left-right brain integration, and bottom up/top down processing, leading to sensory and emotional improvement.
- 4. Observe and track therapeutic change recognizing gains from an interpersonal neurobiology and play-based perspective.
Georgie Wisen-Vincent, LMFT, RPT-S is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Registered Play Therapist Supervisor. Georgie completed her post-graduate work and research in Child-Centered Play Therapy in London at the University of Roehampton. She has used individual play therapy, creative arts therapy, family play therapy, trauma-focused therapy and behavior modification in her work with children and teens in clinics, schools and nonprofit settings. She is a member of the American Association for Play Therapy and the British Association of Play Therapists, and frequently provides play therapy trainings to professional groups, community clinics and universities. Georgie is currently an instructor of play therapy courses and a clinical supervisor at the Loma Linda University School of Social Work, Play Therapy Certificate Program. Georgie has a private practice at The Center for Connection in Pasadena, CA.
Play Therapy for Developing Brains: The Interpersonal Neurobiology Perspective and Play
By Georgie Wisen-Vincent, LMFT, RPT-S
Many parents and people who care for children often ask me what Play Therapy is all about, and if I think that Play Therapy could help their children. Usually, these adults have some concerns about a child’s behavior or ways of relating to others. Maybe grown ups have tried everything they can think of to help the child overcome some troubling behaviors, but the solutions haven’t managed to “stick”.
A Child Centered Play Therapist uses creative media and activities to help open up the child’s natural ability to solve problems. We know that when used effectively, play interventions can increase the child’s flexibility and change brain connections away from rigid, stuck patterns of reactivity. In a well-designed, safe play room, your child will be able to choose different forms of playing that typically include art, music, dance, drama, sand, water, and pretend play. The primary philosophy behind using creative play to help children solve their own problems incorporates these ideas:
Play is a child’s most natural and spontaneous form of self expression.
Children use play to learn about the world they live in, try new things, and to explore their experiences.
Children often play about things they know or experiences they have had.
It is ideal for children to use the safety of imaginary play to explore difficult life experiences they have had.
What children try out in their play (i.e. ideas, social skills, and new solutions to old problems) generalizes to other settings. Neurons that fire together, wire together. With repeated experiences, kids automatically transfer new ways of thinking from the play room to real life!
I’d like to give you a better idea of exactly what your child would be working on in a typical Play Therapy session, with this short example. Keep in mind, this is not an actual case, but more a general idea of the type of work children do in Play Therapy. You’ll see some of the reflective attunement skills a Play Therapist uses to tune in to the child’s ideas and feelings during a play session. Reflective attunement in play is essential to both sensory integration and emotional regulation, as children feel the therapist is closely in tune to the right, creative functioning side of the brain. This helps lay down new patterns of brain connection and new forms of relationship to ideas and other people, moving the child along to look at possible choices and choose better solutions in the play (and therefore, in real life, too).
Jason is a 9 year old boy. He was referred for Play Therapy by his school, after his teacher noticed he was more aggressive than usual, refusing to complete his work, sullen and moody in the classroom, and fighting with his peers more often. After an incident where Jason got angry and broke a window, he shouted, “I hate this school! If I died nobody would even care!” Jason’s parents recently divorced and his mother moved to another town for her new job. Jason now lives with his dad during the week and only sees his mother on weekends, which is a big change for him. Jason says he misses his mom a lot.
The Early Days: Jason’s 5th Play Therapy Session
Jason: Do you know where these people are going? They are going on a plane trip. (Loads people onto plane).
Therapist: They are getting on the plane for their trip.
Jason: They’re gonna fly real fast. They better wear their seatbelts or else. You know what? If they don’t wear their seatbelts they’re not allowed to go. They’ll have to stay home.
Therapist: They have to do what they’re supposed to or they won’t get to go.
Jason: (Putting a baby doll on the plane). Baby’s going too but he’s crying because there’s no seatbelt for him. (Tries to put a mother figure with the baby). Mom is too big, she doesn’t fit. She can’t go on the plane.
Therapist: Baby has to go without mom.
Jason: (Flies the plane around and lands near the dollhouse). They’re back. Here’s the dad. (Holds up doll father). The dad is going to buy a new truck. They need to move because their house is falling down.
Therapist: The house is too shaky so they are going to move.
Jason: I mean they might. They might move.
Therapist: They are thinking about moving but aren’t sure yet.
Early on, the Play Therapist is paying close attention to the story Jason is telling about going on a trip, and using a narrative style to clarify the meaning of Jason’s story. The Play Therapist might be wondering if Jason is having feelings about travelling between two homes and missing having more contact with his mother. He may be thinking about how stable his home life will be with all the changes. Like many children Jason’s age, he might be wondering if the divorce was his fault, or if he had to stay behind because he wasn’t good enough (when mom left)? The Play Therapist allows Jason to tell the story, with the understanding that children will look for ways to resolve the difficulties they are exploring in their play. Creating a coherent life story narrative with the child and introducing new ways of problem solving integrates the creative right brain with the logical left brain, improving the child’s ability to hold both logic and emotion simultaneously, a key ingredient to emotional regulation. Over the next few sessions, Jason repeatedly plays out the same story and thinks about it in different ways, coming up with creative new solutions he may be too stressed to think of in real life.
As the Play Progresses: Jason’s 15th Play Therapy Session
Jason: Crash! There’s a big hole in the wall where the plane just crashed into the house. The dad is going to fix it. He’s got new bricks.
Therapist: There’s a hole in this house that needs fixing.
Jason: (Picks up a little boy doll, who carries over some bricks).
Therapist: The little boy can help.
Jason: Oof! The bricks are so heavy. (Boy is struggling with the bricks).
Therapist: It’s hard work filling up holes. It’s a lot to carry!
Jason: It’s his son.
Therapist: Father and son are working together.
Jason: (Plays on his own, building a new wall for the house with Lego bricks, humming a tune).
Therapist: That house is looking more solid now.
Jason: Yeah but they can’t reach the top, the ones that go up there. It’s too high.
Therapist: They’re worried they won’t be able to finish the job.
Jason: (Thinking). I know! (Brings in a helicopter to lower bricks on top of the wall).
Therapist: You found a way!
Jason: Yeah (Smiling).
We can see here that Jason has been using his Play Therapy sessions to make new connections about what’s going on in his life. The hole that was left by his parents’ divorce can be repaired, when Jason decides that he can rely on his dad and he can pitch in, too. Jason seems more hopeful and capable, as if to say, “Even though I was destroyed when the divorce happened, I’ll find a way to make it.”
Discovering and calling attention to themes, or lessons learned in the child’s stories, develops the child’s ability for bottom-up and top-down processing of highly emotional or traumatic material. Going from the imaginative story-telling mode to cognitive meaning making is the kind of bottom-up processing that can be harder to come by using talk based therapy approaches that primarily work on the upper cortical structures of the brain. The child then becomes the director and outside observer of the story, allowing greater flexibility of describing, thinking about, and resolving their troubles and conflicts.
By taking it in turns the safely “stepping into and outside of” the story, a child can achieve higher sensory and emotional integration because he can both experience and learn from his emotions simultaneously. We would expect that with this stronger belief in himself, Jason would transfer his new problem-solving ability to the school setting, improving his confidence there as well. Not only have we seen the child having a transformative experience in the play, but transforming the brain in a more integrated and fully functioning direction. From an interpersonal neurobiological perspective, making more hopeful connections in the play translates to better connectivity in the child’s brain and relationships!