Play therapy
Play Therapy is a style of therapy that helps children to explore their feelings, to express themselves and to make sense of their life experiences. Play is children's natural medium to learn, communicate and to explore their worlds. Recovery from difficult life experiences can be facilitated by a Play Therapist allowing a child freedom of expression in a safe and trusting environment.
Play Therapy is an effective intervention for children with a variety of presenting problems (children who have been abused, those who have experienced loss, children who are ill or disabled or children who have witnessed violence). Play Therapy is appropriate for children of all ages, but is most often used for children aged between three and twelve years.
CCATS Play therapists work within the Play Therapy UK (PTUK) Ethical Framework.
http://www.playtherapy.org.uk/
Individual Therapies are offered by the CCATS team. After an initial assessment, we offer a range of therapeutic interventions for children, adolescents and adults. Therapy is tailored to the client’s needs. The types of therapy offered include psychodynamic, cognitive behavioural and person – centred and can be provided on an individual, group or family basis.*
Therapeutic work is normally contracted for a specific number of sessions and a comprehensive report is issued to the referring agency on completion of each contractual period. All CCATS therapists work within the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Ethical framework.
http://www.bacp.co.uk/
*Further information on different types of therapies is available on request.
Specialist Therapies are offered by CCATS such as Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Energy Psychology,
EMDR has found widespread acclaim by a large portion of the clinical community since its development in the 1980’s. It is particularly effective for sufferers of Post – Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)*.
The name, EMDR, refers to a psychological therapy originally known as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
With traumatic events the incoming sensory information is emotionally-charged; it gets stuck in the Central Nervous System (CNS) in the right hemisphere of the brain. It does not get processed so, when reminders occur, the stuck memory is triggered and feels emotionally that it is happening in the present. This accounts for flashbacks, intrusive thoughts and nightmares.
EMDR therapists help clients reprocess their traumatic memories by using a process that involves repeated left-right (bilateral) stimulation of the brain while noticing different aspects of the traumatic memory. The bilateral stimulation is achieved through either rapid eye movements across the field of vision, auditory tones or clicks, or tactile stimulation of alternate sides of the body. It is believed that the bilateral stimulation of EMDR creates biochemical changes in the brain that aid processing of information. Theorists suggest that the mode of action occurs in the Limbic System, where the amygdala and hippocampus are located.
*Trauma-focused CBT and EMDR were stated to be empirically supported treatments of choice for adult and child PTSD.National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2005).
http://www.nice.org.uk/pdf/CG026publicinfo.pdf
*The Royal College of Psychiatrists suggests that EMDR, Psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and anti - depressants are all effective in the treatment of PTSD. The National Institute for clinical excellence (NICE) guidelines suggest that trauma – focussed psychological therapies (CBT or EMBR) should be offered before medication, wherever possible.
Royal College of Psychiatrists:
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/default.aspx?page=0
Energy Psychology such as TFT and EFT focus therapy on certain oriental meridian systems of the body.
Thought Field Therapy (TFT) and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) are psychotherapeutic techniques based in the theory of Energy Psychology (EP), a collection of therapeutic modalities that have strong cognitive and somatic components. A primary distinguishing contribution of EP is its ability to rapidly reduce hyper arousal in the limbic system by pairing a triggering image, thought or situation with specific stimulation which send signals to the limbic system to reduce the stress response. Once the negative response is removed, the client is then able to have insight into more rational ways of coping in the once-feared situation.
http://www.emdr.org.uk/
“All negative emotions arise from a disturbance or blockage in our body’s energy system”