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  • Therapy for Your Family and Groovy Gifts
    • Why Therapy?
  • About Me
    • Parent Coaching for Scotts Valley
  • Child Therapy
    • How much is a parent involved in their child's therapy?
  • Family Therapy
    • Blog for families seeking help through counseling >
      • Blog Disclaimer
      • Inspirational Quotes for Daily Life, Sheryl A. Isaacs
  • Forms for Therapy Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz
  • Therapy Articles for your Children and Family
  • Sensory workshop for Parents and Children, Scotts Valley
  • Kindergarten Readiness Toolkit
  • Free worksheets for therapy
  • Resources for Families in Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz
  • Scotts Valley Therapist will be out of office
  • Groovy Gifts by Sheryl
  • Groovy Tie Dye Shirts
  • Groovy Gifts Tie Dye Special Order
  • Groovy Gifts Tie Dye Shirts
  • Child and Family Therapist Insurances Accepted
  • Give Away June 20232
Integrative Therapy for Children and Families and Groovy Gifts by Sheryl
  • Therapy for Your Family and Groovy Gifts
    • Why Therapy?
  • About Me
    • Parent Coaching for Scotts Valley
  • Child Therapy
    • How much is a parent involved in their child's therapy?
  • Family Therapy
    • Blog for families seeking help through counseling >
      • Blog Disclaimer
      • Inspirational Quotes for Daily Life, Sheryl A. Isaacs
  • Forms for Therapy Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz
  • Therapy Articles for your Children and Family
  • Sensory workshop for Parents and Children, Scotts Valley
  • Kindergarten Readiness Toolkit
  • Free worksheets for therapy
  • Resources for Families in Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz
  • Scotts Valley Therapist will be out of office
  • Groovy Gifts by Sheryl
  • Groovy Tie Dye Shirts
  • Groovy Gifts Tie Dye Special Order
  • Groovy Gifts Tie Dye Shirts
  • Child and Family Therapist Insurances Accepted
  • Give Away June 20232

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    Sheryl Isaacs is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  She is currently working in Scotts Valley seeing clients in private practice.

    Sheryl has worked with families and children that have experienced a wide range of issues including: anxiety, trauma, depression, autism, ADHD, developmental issues, behavioral issues, divorce,
    bulimia, grief, communication and self esteem issues.

    She provides parental coaching, child therapy, sibling counseling, family therapy, marriage counseling,  and individual counseling.

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Play Therapy with Children

5/19/2013

 
Mickey mouse surrounded by many other little figures, example of play therapy
By Sheryl A. Isaacs

Play Therapy with children is a very important therapeutic tool because it utilizes the child's natural language, the language of play.  Children naturally seek to express themselves through play. Stories, metaphors, problem solving, fears and experimenting with new roles occur when a child plays. The Play therapist engages the child in this natural language of childhood to help the child process strong emotions, trauma and role play difficult situations that the child may face. Every day through play children are working out a myriad of problems that occur in their world.  
 
When participating with a child in their play, the therapist enters into the world of the child, accepting the play and the child unconditionally. The therapist follows the child’s lead, allowing them a sense of control that they might not otherwise feel. This integration into the child’s world allows the therapist to deeply connect with the child. The child can act out any situation that needs attention in their lives without fear of the therapist rejecting them.  When scenarios are acted out that are difficult, it gives the therapist the opportunity to empathize with the child's experience through play and gently mix into play therapeutic concepts and tools.  Utilizing the play format makes disclosure of severe experiences and strong emotions easier for the child to express to the therapist.  
 
The therapist can then help the child make sense of their world by finding metaphors that relate to the
child's life hidden within their play. Through this process the therapist can eventually help the child "restory" their play, which enables a child to move through difficult situations in their life. As play therapy continues, one can
see a normalization of play.  The child’s play becomes more typical developmentally and the child’s play becomes
more reciprocal in nature with the therapist. Often the themes that had been so important in play are abandoned. 
The child does not feel the need to work out through play the metaphors that he had been. For now, the issue has been resolved. 
 
However, it is important to note that when children experience a trauma they will continue to process this trauma
throughout their development. This occurs due to the changes that occur developmentally.  The trauma will most likely need to be processed again at key developmental stages or changes in their life, such as when a child begins
Kindergarten, enters into puberty, or becomes a teenager.  The child that processed trauma through play may need to verbally process this trauma as a teenager.  A young child will not feel the same feelings or have the same questions that a teenager might have in regard to their trauma experience.

 This of course, is just a general overview of the play therapy experience. There are many theories and
developmental models that are utilized as well as different models of play therapy. Play therapists engage in many different varieties of play as well, again following the child’s lead. Expressive arts, lego play, doll house play, imaginary play, active play, puppet play…any type of play that you can imagine is utilized in the play therapy room. The key is to allow the child to be who he is, express his story the way he needs to express it and follow his lead. 

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Groovy Gifts by Sheryl
Many hand crocheted items that are unique and personal, one of a kind gifts. Groovy Tie Dye, Sarcastic Stuffies, Groovy Pets, Therapy Rocks, Groovy Totes and Tie Dye T-shirts. Also sensory toys, fun toys, therapeutic toys, psycho-educational items for clients , therapists or friends. 
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Serving:
Scotts Valley
Ben Lomond
​Brookdale
Boulder Creek
Santa Cruz 
Soquel
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Watsonville



What Clients are saying:

"Sheryl has helped me with my children's challenging behavior. She has been very helpful with support for me and my children. She has provided me with tools and resources that have help me be a better parent and partner. I strongly recommend her to anyone who is facing difficulties in their relationships." -Yelp Review

"Sheryl lets me feel totally understood and cared for..."

"I feel unconditional acceptance and heard by Sheryl."


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-Anger MGT
-Depression
-School Problems  
-Grief and Loss
-Effects of Divorce
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-Your Anxiety
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 Intervention
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Copyright 2013,  Sheryl A. Isaacs , ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Photos from Brent Gambrell, roland, stevendepolo, shellyterrell, kellynphillong, bengrey, MiikaS, Upsilon Andromedae, Vassilis Online, Cuito Cuanavale, Caselet