The Play Therapies Centre Ltd

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The Play Therapies Centre Ltd

Helping children resolve their problems through therapeutic play. The Play Therapies Centre is run by a team of highly skilled and dedicated professionals.

Together we have over 30 years combined experience of Teaching, Youth & Community Work, Child Development, Clinical psychology and Social Work as well as all being qualified to Post Graduate level in Non-Directive Play Therapy and are registered with Play Therapy International and the Academy of Play And Child Psychotherapy (APAC). We have 3 centres:
Belfast - Wellington Park, Malone Road
Derry - Garden of Reflection on Pump Street
Newry - Hill Street

At The Play Therapies Centre we believe that each child is special and unique. We are passionate about helping and supporting children to grow and progress from being anxious, withdrawn or hostile to becoming more confident, content and satisfied with themselves and their environments.

08/11/2025

Charlie Brown explains that when you are depressed, the "worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high" because you will feel better, thus ruining "the joy of being depressed".

This idea highlights a core principle in movement therapy: the body reflects internal feelings, and changing the physical posture can influence emotional well-being. A drooped posture with lowered head and shoulders often physically manifests feelings of sadness or shame, while standing erect can help foster feelings of dignity and strength.

In play therapy children use movement and dance to help improve their emotional, social, cognitive, and physical well-being.

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

31/10/2025

How Halloween is like play therapy:

It may seem strange that haunted houses, scary movies, and ghost stories are so popular. But being scared in a safe container allows us to come close to death without being undone by it. We experience adrenaline, intensity, and even relief—all while knowing we are held.

In the same way, play therapy for trauma offers a safe container to approach what once felt overwhelming. We don’t dive into fear recklessly—we create conditions where the psyche can re-encounter what was unbearable, this time with support, compassion, and presence.

You are not alone in your fear.

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

27/10/2025

As we approach Halloween this week it gives us playful images of the shadow: ghosts, witches, skeletons, monsters. In therapy, shadow work is less playful but deeply transformative. It might mean facing grief that feels unbearable, anger we were taught to repress, or shame we’ve carried silently for years.

Depth psychotherapy helps bring light to these shadow places without erasing them. Like placing a candle in a jack-o’-lantern, we learn to hold both the darkness and the light together. This is the essence of healing: not denial, but integration.

Halloween reminds us that death is not a mistake, fear is not an enemy, and the unseen is not meaningless. These are essential parts of being human.

26/10/2025

The Matrix can not hold a soul that is lit from within.

"The Matrix" can be interpreted as a metaphor for an individual's journey into spiritual and mental health, achieved by overcoming one's inner conflicts with the help of therapy.

In the movie they don’t fear the perfect ones.
They fear the healed ones. The ones who’ve fallen… and got back up. The ones who walked through the darkness, felt every bit of it, and chose not to stay there.

In the movie you are dangerous to the system when you’re no longer numb.

When you choose love over fear. When you stop reacting and start remembering.

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

23/10/2025

Parents' own emotional states and stress levels can impact their ability to provide a secure environment. Gabor Maté suggests that parents can help by addressing their own trauma and emotional triggers.

This is why its so important that at The Play Therapies Centre we not only provide your child with support but also support you.

For group or individual parents support contact us to find out more information on what we do.
⭐️Baby Bonding Groups
⭐️Nurturing Minds Parents Support for parents with children of all ages.
⭐️One to one parents sessions for tailored support.

What ever way you receive support you will get it in a secure, safe and nurturing way.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Yj9nPzBg8/

17/10/2025

Looking forward to our next market in St. Columb’s Hall, Derry this Saturday 12-4pm

15/10/2025

We can not heal what we hide, bury, deny, ignore or avoid.

We have to face it, feel it and own it in order to heal it.

Are you ready to start this journey?

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

07/10/2025

No one is mad at you.

Thats just an echo
From how you grew up.
You are safe.
You can let go.

Art. ECHO by Graham Dean

27/09/2025

Its been highlighted to me over and over again by parent's and carers that certain activities that children engage in for fun are responded to with impatience and disgust, as if a child is deliberately being oppositional.

“You aren’t trying hard enough! You just don’t care! You’re too scared or you aren't good enough. When these “helpful interventions” surprisingly didn’t help the child perform at the activity then withholding rewards as punishment are brought in.

In the process, little children are shamed, humiliated and punished because they are afraid and immobilized by fears that are absolutely normal to have.

As a consequence, too many kids go home at night feeling totally devastated and traumatized by the way some well meaning adults behave.

This is especially true of children with a neuro-diversity or a child with a traumatic early history.

They feel like they are somehow bad, that there is something very wrong with them because they can’t get themselves to do what they’re supposed to do.

In my opinion this highlights the adults inadequacies as an instructor/facilitator, not the child’s shortcomings.

You will never make a child feel safe (thus manage behaviour) by being angry or humiliating them.These are living, feeling, sensitive children you’re working with here, NOT inanimate objects!

Try to remember that you are not just teaching art/sport skills etc here. Your working with something far more important. You are helping shape how this child will see and feel about herself outside of your setting for years to come.

Punishment is not a tool of teaching. It is a tool of control.
Discipline means to teach, not to dominate.

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

Art : shame by Tyrone Geter

22/09/2025

“In the end, only three things matter, how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”

This is what the autumn equinox is celebrated for. Just as trees shed their leaves, we can also release what no longer serves us, and make space for new beginnings and personal growth.

How do you manage transitions or endings? Do you skip the emotions with transitions or endings? Or do you stay in your head because you don't feel safe in your body?

This time of year is about deciding what’s left in that heavy suitcase you may still be carrying, and choose to let it go.

A similar process occurs with the leaves on trees during this season. If a leaf is healthy, in Autumn the tree reabsorbs as much as it can from the leaf, sealing it off before ultimately letting it go. Conversely, if the leaf is diseased, the tree release it without reabsorbing anything from it.

What in your life no longer serves you that you are ready to let go of?

WWW.THEPLAYTHERAPIESCENTRE.CO.UK

Address

Office 5, 3 Wellington Park Business Centre
Belfast
BT126EE

Telephone

+442890923337

Website

http://www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk/

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