Child Focused Play Therapy

“It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.” –Donald Winnicott

Dr. Dring also provides child play therapy to help children proceed developmentally in the most positive way possible.  She uses play therapy to encourage children to work through overwhelming feelings and thoughts that are causing them emotional, behavioral and learning problems.  Play therapy is used to help children who have unfortunately been traumatized by sexual, physical or emotional abuse.  Play therapy is also helpful when working with children whose parents are going through a divorce, or there have been other losses in the family.  Parents and caregivers are also actively included in the therapy of their children.  Dr. Dring has a family systems approach (each family member has an impact on the other members to some extent) as well as a psychodynamic approach to helping children.

Dr. Dring has an engaging playroom for child play therapy.  Your child’s comfort, trust and belief that Dr. Dring will help him/her is one of the first focuses of treatment and assessment. Research indicates that children can work through their emotional problems in play therapy.  Dr. Dring treats children’s emotional problems within a developmental context.  The main goal of interventions is to help children advance through their childhood with optimal potential for learning, developing relationships, emotional stability, self-esteem, and a stable sense of their identity. Caretakers and family relationships are also a vital part of her interventions.   She has developed a specialty in helping children who have suffered with traumas.