Plato (429‐347 B.C.) reportedly observed  “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”

Play therapy is generally used with children aged 3 through 11 but can also be very effective for teenagers, it provides a way for them to express their experiences and feelings through a natural, self‐guided, self‐healing process. As children’s experiences and knowledge are often communicated through play, it becomes an important vehicle for them to know and accept themselves and others.

Play is a natural and spontaneous part of people’s lives, especially children. Children learn through play, about their physical surroundings, their own capabilities and limitations, social rules and the difference between fantasy and reality. Play helps children communicate and can show what could be worrying them when it seems to be too complicated for them to verbalise.

Children are brought to play therapy at a stage in their lives when they have exhausted all their own capabilities for solving problems and no longer know what to do. By this time, children may be acting out at home, with friends, and at school.