Psychological Interventions

Play therapy is a form of therapy used primarily for children. That’s because children may not be able to process their own emotions or articulate problems to parents or other adults. In other words, Play therapy is to children what counselling is to adults.

Play therapy uses play, children’s natural medium of expression, to help them express their feelings more easily through toys instead of words. When working with children, play therapy can break down barriers and improve relationship building, creating a safe and motivating environment for a better treatment outcome.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a type of talk therapy that can help younger children and teens who may have anxiety issues or depression. CBT focuses on how thoughts and emotions affect behaviour. Your child doesn’t need to have a diagnosed mental health condition to benefit from CBT.

Therapy usually involves an agreed-upon goal and a set number of sessions. The psychologist will help your child learn to replace negative thought patterns with more productive ones. Through role-playing and other methods, your child can practice alternate ways of handling stressful situations.

Behaviour therapy teaches children and their families how to strengthen positive child behaviours and eliminate or reduce unwanted or problem behaviours. It helps children become less impulsive and defiant, have fewer tantrums, and adopt behaviours that are encouraged by parents.

Behaviour Therapy operates on a simple premise: Parents and other adults in a child’s life set clear expectations for their child’s behaviour. The psychologist will identify the problem behaviours, find out the function of the behaviours, find alternative behaviours, and come up with effective rewards for the child to encourage new positive behaviour.

Group Play Therapy is a play-based therapy for children aged 3 to 10  years old who are experiencing social, emotional, behavioural or developmental disorders. It is conducted in a group of not more than 10 children in the presence of an adult whose relationship to the group may vary from passive observation to active interpretation.

Group Play Therapy allows children the opportunity to realise that their friends may be struggling too and this fosters a sense of acceptance, between the child, psychologist and the adults present. Group Play Therapy allows the child to experience self-exploration and self-discovery in a safe and welcoming environment.

Social skills are the skills we use every day to interact and communicate with others. They include verbal and non-verbal communication, such as speech, gesture, facial expression and body language. A person has strong social skills if they have the knowledge of how to behave in social situations and understand both written and implied rules when communicating with others

Therefore, Social Skills Training is a type of therapy that works to help people diagnosed with certain mental or psychological disorders and whose symptoms involve poor social functioning. It helps children to think before they act, understand other people’s perspectives, communicate effectively, and use strategies for managing impulsiveness or aggression. Social Skills Training can be done one-on-one or in a group situation.

Applied behavioural analysis (ABA) therapy is a therapy approach that  focuses on using positive reinforcement to improve behavioural, social, communication, and learning skills. ABA therapy makes use of behavioural principles to set goals, reinforce behaviours, and measure outcomes.

It is usually used to teach children with Autism new useful behaviours or to eliminate socially undesirable behaviours. However, this approach can also be used to teach new behaviours to other children.

Parent management training (PMT) is an approach that teaches parents to use their responses to increase the frequency of desired behaviours and extinguish maladaptive behaviours. This means that they are the ones who will train their children at home.

The parents will meet with a therapist or trainer who teaches them to use specific procedures to alter interactions with their child, to promote prosocial behaviour, and to decrease deviant behaviour. It can be used to deal with conduct-problem behaviours such as temper tantrums, aggression, and excessive noncompliance. It can also be used to train parents to manage their child with a diagnosis such as teaching parents how to manage a child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Autism.