"Play with a Purpose", EvenStart, 2009
- Author:
- Anne Harris
- Source:
- Most Significant Change, 2009
Regardless of circumstances,
children can be given the best possible start in life.
Abused children often become involved in destructive and problematic adult relationships later in life. In many cases the adult who was abused in childhood, becomes a victim again in adult relationships; in other cases, they become the perpetrators of violence. This destructive spiral of abuse negatively affects our community at large, in a multitude of direct and indirect impacts.
Our work is to not only ameliorate their unhealthy social and behavioral patterns, but to assist them with a healthier development. We employ many strategies to assist the child at risk. Over the past year, value and benefits from incorporating remedial treatment in the form of Play Therapy, has shown great benefits. Play Therapy is professionally acknowledged for its beneficial outcomes.
Play Therapy at EvenStart engages children mainly on a one-to-one basis with sessions lasting for an hour; sometimes work is done with groups of children. The Play Therapist helps all of these children by identifying/addressing their deepest fears. Play Therapy has proven its potential to assist the child in managing and mitigating these type of experiences, not just the symptoms.
Play Therapist practitioners are professional level health care personnel, involved in clinical supervision and clinical governance. The Therapist keeps written records of sessions with children and is responsible for writing letters and reports, liaising with parents and other professionals, and attending Court. The skill level and training of such a specialist constitutes a functioning team member practicing at exceptionally responsible levels. Therefore, in recruiting Play Therapists, we have acquired an individual with a minimum Master‘s Degree in Psychology, possessing advanced competency in unlocking a child’s secret world of fear and insecurity, which has previously prevented that child from healing and realizing an ‘even start’ to their life.
With SVP’s help, the discipline of Play Therapy has now become a significant feature within our treatment repertoire, for the planning and case management of our treatment population. It yields many positive program outcomes, the most of important of which is a healthier, more well-adjusted child within a healthier community.