What Is Play Therapy? And How It Helps Children Heal

You’ve probably heard the term “play therapy”—maybe from a friend, your child’s school, or a health professional. But what exactly is play therapy? Is it just… playing? How can something so simple help children with serious emotional, behavioral, or developmental challenges?

Let’s unpack it all together—with warmth, clarity, and some powerful evidence to guide the way.

What Is Play Therapy?

Play therapy is a developmentally sensitive, evidence-based form of psychotherapy designed especially for children. It uses play—children’s natural language—to help them express feelings, resolve internal conflicts, build coping skills, and feel more connected to themselves and others.

As the Association for Play Therapy explains:
“Play therapy is the systematic use of a theoretical model to establish an interpersonal process wherein trained play therapists help children prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth and development.”

In simpler terms: a trained therapist uses the medium of play to support a child’s emotional and psychological healing.

Why Play?

Children don’t typically sit down and talk through their struggles like adults do. Instead, they communicate through play—using toys, stories, roleplay, movement, and creativity to explore what’s going on inside them.

This isn’t just guesswork. Research in developmental psychology shows that play is how children process experiences, rehearse coping strategies, and make sense of the world. In therapy, this natural process becomes a safe, supportive space for healing.

“Play is to the child what verbalization is to the adult. It is the most natural means of self-expression.” — Virginia Axline