August 2024: Stories of Impact

This summer - in addition to getting certified as a trauma & resilience specialist this month, another one of the big things that has majorly influenced / impacted my work with these incredible children has been learning more about the child centered approach to play therapy

A facet that I LOVE about this practice is the importance in the belief that every child needs someone who is absolutely crazy about them.

It was super important to me, when I started working with these kids last year, that I knew every single one of their names as quickly as possible. This was made a little bit easier as I started working on getting updated photos of each boy and girl to post to the sponsor Facebook page, but was still pretty difficult with 80 kiddos 6th grade and below, and then 40+ 7th and 8th graders! But one of their favorite games was to come up and ask “do you know my name?” and their faces would light up when I said “of course I do!

I’ve been spending more time the last couple weeks intentionally leavnig my art supplies upstairs and meeting the kids where they are playing. Sometimes thats the football fields, my makeshift twine volleyball net, or on the playset where the littles play house/auntie/school. I learn so much about their lives from being part of these games.

One of the big parts of child centered play therapy is that the child’s language is play, and their language is toys,so I am excited to keep joining in on their play and learning how I can best be there for them!