Heal Through Play, LLC
Child Counseling, Play Therapy and Parent Coaching
Helping children and families thrive!
Our Healing Modality
At Heal Through Play, we use a type of psychotherapy called Synergetic Play Theray. Synergetics is the empirical study of systems in transformation, with an emphasis on total system behavior unpredicated by the behavior of any isolated components.
Synergetic Play Therapy™(SPT) is the first research-informed play therapy model to blend together neuroscience, attachment/attunement, therapist authenticity, physics, emotional congruence, nervous system regulation, and mindfulness/mindsight.
Synergetic Play Therapists understand the neuro-science behind the transformation process and are able to work with a child (and the family) in such a way that targets:
1) Supporting the child in moving towards the uncomfortable sensations, emotions and thoughts that they might be experiencing. The result is that the child heals at much deeper and faster level.
2) Re-patterning of the child's nervous systems. The result is that the child feels empowered in his/her physical body, while learning new and more effective coping strategies that he/she can take with him/her for life.
3) Teaching the child how to stay connected (attach) to him/herself, so that his/her authentic self emerges and his/her belief in self increases.
(Synergetic Play Therapy™, Lisa Dion, 2013)
Synergetic Play Therapists literally get to the root of the struggle, helping transform the child (and the family) from the inside out. As human beings we are given a marvelous coping mechanism in our biology called the nervous system. In simple terms, the nervous system acts like a "honing mechanism" constantly trying to keep us in an optimal state of regulation. When we perceive any form of challenge in our lives, our nervous system gets activated to either rev us up or slow us down- whatever we perceive is necessary to take on the challenge. Every symptom that a child struggles with is rooted in an inability for the nervous system to get them back to a state of regulation.
When we have an experience that we have labeled as “challenging” in our perceptions, we will attempt to move away from the physical sensations, emotions and thoughts related to that experience. Neuro-biology now shows us that in order for integration to occur, we must move towards the physical sensations, emotions and/or thoughts rather than away from them.