With 1 in 10 children in the UK suffering a psychological disorder*, the proven benefits of Play Therapy have become increasingly vital to the emotional well-being of children and families across the UK.

Creativity and child-centred Play Therapy can bring help and healing to children experiencing a wide range of difficulties including relationship and family breakdown, bullying, domestic violence, bereavement, delayed development, nightmares, social exclusion, anxiety, phobias, behavioural and conduct problems, trauma,  attachment difficulties, and many other worrying issues.   

Play Therapy works by giving children a regular time each week to explore and make sense of their difficult, confusing and painful experiences with an empathic Play Therapist.  These experiences are often "spilling over" into the here and now and manifesting in all kinds of worrying or unwanted behaviours.  Play is the very language of children and they use it in therapy to express, process and resolve problems that they can rarely express with words.  As problems begin to resolve, parents and carers can also learn play-based therapeutic skills to continue the positive changes in their family themselves.  This is achieved through Filial Play and full details are on the Family Relationships page.  big toes little toes believes very strongly that parents and carers who feel able and empowered to support their own children through difficulties continue the good work long after Filial Play has ended.

If you are interested in finding out more about Play Therapy and Filial Therapy and how these interventions could help in your family, situation or setting, please do get in touch. 

* Source: “Children and young people in mind: the final report of the national CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) Review" November 2008