Play therapist Michal Burnham teaches parents how to do simple play therapy on their own
Not really?
Okay, next round: Let’s try play therapy. Here, even the cynics among us relax, picturing young children, Playmobil, dolls, and markers. Still, this is taking place in a clinic (with possibly a hefty sum forked over at the end of the session).
Now take the kids, the toys, and the drawing implements, (sorry, not the check) and transplant them to your living room. With you as the therapist. Sound impossible? Michal Burnham MA, guidance counselor, parenting mentor, ACT, and play therapist living in Petach Tikvah, is trying to change that.
Michal, who studied play therapy in Bar-Ilan University, is building on what she learned by teaching parents the principles of play therapy. The idea is revolutionary but simple: Instead of paying a professional for a session once a week, why not have the parent, who’s with the child all the time and so much more available for the spillover, do the work instead?
“Psychologists today agree that working with parents is the quickest, most direct, and straightforward way of helping children,” Michal says. While it’s true a professional may be more skilled, the parent is the one who will actually be there when the child has a meltdown and refuses to go into the shower.
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