International play therapy week, using expressive arts for children counseling

EL PASO, TX (KVIA) -- This week is International Play Therapy Week, professionals are raising awareness to this evidence based training that helps children express themselves naturally. 

Play therapists incorporate toys and expressive arts to their counseling sessions, “young children have often only had a few years of experience, and they're also still learning to identify their feelings, to recognize that complex experience of what's happening internally. And how do I name that and explain it to someone else and understand it for myself,” explains Mandi Melendez, registered play therapist supervisor.
“Therapists know that the play is the therapy, and it's a very specialized form of working with people to support them in a developmentally appropriate way,” Melendez emphasizes. Play therapists go through a long process to become certified, after graduate school they undergo 150 hours of play therapy-specific training and 350 hours of supervised play therapy with clients. 

Children can begin play therapy as early as three years old, for younger children there is a family assisted or parent guided play therapy option 

This form of therapy has only been around for a few decades, “it originated with people trying to figure out the best way to support kids when traditional talk therapy wasn't working. And the reason it doesn't work very well with many children is brain development,” says Melendez. 

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