Study Play Therapy Online

Play therapy is a therapeutic approach which can be used to help children express their thoughts and feelings through play. Although it is mostly used with children between the ages of 3 and 12 years, more recently it has also be used with older children and infants as well as special populations of adults such as people living with dementia, adults with emotional disturbances and those with developmental disabilities. As with other psychotherapies, the goal of play therapy is to help individuals attain improvement in psychological health and well-being.

The course requires around 100 hours of study.

You can start at any time to suit you and work at your own pace.

Lesson Structure

There are 9 lessons in this course:

1. The Foundation for Using Play Therapy
2. Applications of Play and Play Therapy
3. Play Therapy for Anxiety and Depressive Disorders
4. Play Therapy for Behavioural Disorders
5. Play Therapy for Developmental Disorders
6. Play Therapy for Social & Family Problems
7. Play Therapy and Adult Populations
8. Related Specialised Creative Therapies
9. Play and Rehabilitation

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Explain the purpose for using play therapy, potential of what it might achieve, and determine situations where it is appropriate to use it as a therapeutic technique.
• Explain the therapeutic play continuum, applications of play and play therapy, play therapy tools, advantages and issues arising in therapy.
• Explain how play therapy can be used to help children with emotional disturbances such as depression and anxiety disorders.
• Explain how play therapy can be used to help children with behavioural disorders such as conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and problems with anger and impulse control.
• Explain how play therapy can be used to treat developmental disorders such as autism, intellectual disability and learning disorders.
• Determine appropriate uses of play therapy for children suffering from social and family related problems such as grief and loss, crises such as divorce, and trauma-related issues.
• Determine uses of play therapy to assist adult populations with specific emotional and psychological problems which can benefit from play.
• Explain a range of different but closely related therapies including music, art, and drama therapy, and techniques used in these therapies which are incorporated into play therapy.
• Explain how play can be used in occupational therapy and other contexts to help people manage or rehabilitate from physical and mental disabilities, and the role of science and technology.

Why Study Play Therapy?

Like other types of therapy, play therapy helps to reduce or eliminate negative or maladaptive behaviours whilst encouraging the use of positive or adaptive ones. Some of the benefits attributed to play therapy include:

• Improved mood and positive feelings
• Better coping skills
• Enhanced problem solving
• Less internal conflict and stress
• Greater self-awareness
• Increased impulse control
• Appropriate emotional expression
• Improved verbal skills
• Better communication
• Improved social skills
• Increased confidence and self-esteem
• Greater trust of others
• Increased maturity