Shut your eyes for a moment and think of a child’s health. What images come to mind ? The child’s diet, for sure. Is the child eating right, eating on time, eating enough fresh fruit and vegetables, drinking enough milk? You also probably think about the child’s exercise routine. Swimming, yoga, aerobics, badminton …

The point is, most people think of health as physical health alone. But there is another aspect of health that is just as important - The child’s emotional health. Especially in these times when there is so much pressure to succeed academically, peer pressure, so much media exposure and when dual income nuclear families leave little time for parent - child interaction.

At Spring Counselling, we have play therapeutics and preventive programs that help you look after a child’s emotional health.

WHAT IS PLAY THERAPEUTICS ?

Between ages 3 and 9, children need to be nurtured very carefully. In the absence of such nurturing, children subconsciously tend to draw attention to themselves by becoming overly withdrawn, violent, hyperactive, distracted, inactive, scared or angry. These children need a careful handling by an expert play therapist.

Play therapeutics is a method of therapy used to help children express their feelings. Play is a child's natural language and it permits the child to make sense of the world around him/her by communicating with adults symbolically and through his or her actions. Play gives a child a feeling of strength and power that adult controlled activities cannot offer.

Play therapy creates a setting and relationship where your child can express what he/she cannot say in words. Play therapy furthers children’s natural development. It empowers children, enabling them to make decisions and cope with real life situations. It also allows them to use their natural abilities to develop in a beneficial way.

CHILDREN WHO MAY BENEFIT FROM PLAY THERAPY :

• Children with behaviour that is immature for their age
  e.g. thumb sucking, bed wetting inappropriate to their age
  
  
• Children with behaviour that interferes with his/her ability to learn
  or make friends ( such as aggression, withdrawal)
  
  
• Children who experience excessive anger, sadness or fears
  
  
• Children who are suffering from stammer, stutter
  or other problems of expression due to emotional pressure
  
  
• Children who are experiencing difficulty adjusting to family changes
  (such as divorce, separation or death)
  
  
• Children who are experiencing and/or witnessing family violence,
  physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
  

WHAT IS SPRING’S NINE - STEP PLAY THERAPY PROGRAMME ?

When a child comes in for therapy, accompanied by a parent, there is the excitement and the uncertainty associated with the unknown. From here, the therapist takes over and inducts the child into play therapeutics, one step at a time.

• Develops a warm, friendly relationship with the child and establishes a rapport.
  
  
• Accepts the child exactly as he/she is.
  
  
• Establishes an environment where the child feels free to express his/her feelings completely.
  
  
• Is alert to recognize the feelings the child is expressing and reflects those feelings back to the child in a manner that he/she gains insight into his/her own behaviour.
  
  
• Maintains a deep respect for the child’s ability to solve his/her own problems, if given an opportunity to do so. The responsibility to make choices and to institute change is on the child.
  
  
• Does not attempt to direct the child’s actions or conversation in any manner. The child leads the way, the therapist follows.
  
  
• Does not attempt to hurry therapy along. It is a gradual process and the therapist knows this.
  
  
• Establishes only those limitations that are necessary to anchor therapy to the world of reality and to make the child aware of his/her responsibility in the relationship.
  
  
• Uses games and play material including books, dolls, cars, puppets, building blocks and play things a child is comfortable with.
  
  

The child initiates himself/herself into play therapy on a weekly or biweekly basis. The focal point of therapy is change. The therapist acts as a catalyst and helps the child discover himself/herself at his/her own time and pace.

Therapy may then continue for a short term (up to 25 sessions), mid - term (75 sessions) or long term (as long as required).

Parents/relatives are called in to participate when necessary.



WHAT ARE SPRING’S SELF DISCOVERY WORKSHOPS FOR CHILDREN?

These preventive programmes are geared at creating an environment where a child is encouraged to discover his / her own creativity. Each child expresses his/her feelings in a free and fearless manner, growing each moment in self confidence and getting comfortable with himself / herself.

ABOUT THESE PROGRAMMES:

All of us are born creative. As we grow up, the world begins to put blinkers, borders, and barricades that stunt creative growth. We are told to do this, not to do that, this is right, that is wrong, be like so - and - so...

Spring’s Self Discovery Workshops, each of duration of 50 hours spread over a number of weeks, create an environment where the child can be himself/herself even in a group. The Workshop uses a series of activities, each one specially devised with a clear objective in mind.

Similar workshops are also arranged in summer vacation and Diwali breaks. Some workshops are held in Bombay and some outside Bombay at an adventure centre.

This way, the child not only participates in an activity, he/she gets to articulate the process that went into approaching and performing that activity. Since there are no marks to be won or grades to be earned, each child expresses his/her feelings in a free and fearless manner, growing each moment in self confidence and getting comfortable with himself / herself.