Helping Professionals Series: San Diego Play Therapy Expert shares about Child-Centered Play Therapy.
Belinda Lee, LMFT, RPT
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist #121127
Registered Play Therapist
For this Helping Professionals Series Interview, I contacted San Diego Play Therapist, Belinda Lee. She is the owner of Brave Heart Child and Family Counseling in the Carmel Valley/Sorrento Valley area. I’m excited to share this interview.
Belinda Lee is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and a Registered Play Therapist who is passionate about empowering children of all ages to make more thoughtful, informed choices in their life.
She works with clients navigating grief/loss, anxiety, depression, anger, family changes, cultural and ethnic identity, medical traumas, and other challenges. Through therapy, Belinda provides children with a nonjudgmental, safe space to process their experiences and develop skills. Using play therapy she works to strengthen their psychological fortitude, self identity, and resilience. All of this helps them to more effectively communicate their needs to supportive adults around them.
Learn more about Belinda Lee the Play Therapy she provides from our interview below!
What age group is Play Therapy for?
Play therapy is designed for younger children, ages 3-12, but every person uses play, in different forms, to communicate. With older children, and even adults, play can be a healing medium of communication that is nonverbal.
As a San Diego Play Therapy expert, you specialize in Child-Centered Play Therapy and Gestalt Play Therapy. What is the difference between these types of Play Therapy?
Child-Centered Play allows a child to increase their own awareness of their control in their lives through play, and Gestalt Play Therapy is an experiential approach that focuses on helping children truly experience their emotions in their body.
As a child attains more control and awareness over their emotions through the child-centered approach, they gain more tolerance for previously overwhelming or difficult emotions and are better able to communicate their needs and apply preferred coping skills when responding to their emotions.
How do you like to involve parents or caretakers in therapy with children?
The parent and caretaker are the ones with the child 24/7. Children regulate their emotions through co-regulation with their parents/caretakers, and they are often modeling the behaviors and reactions of their parents and caretakers. As such, I involve parents via occasional parent sessions and short (10-15 minute) phone check-ins, when necessary.
During parent sessions, I share themes that I have observed with the child, address any questions regarding the therapeutic relationship, and I work with the parents to build their own coping and regulation skills if and when their child behaves in a concerning manner.
What do you love about providing Play Therapy as a San Diego Child Therapy professional?
I enjoy providing children with a space where their voices can be heard, and their perspective is valued and seen. I enjoy witnessing the increased relief of the parents and family system as another professional comes alongside them to help their child regulate their emotions better. I love helping children and parents develop a more gracious way of interacting with each other so that they can work and communicate better together.
What’s a misconception that parents and caretakers sometimes have about Play Therapy?
Sometimes, parents and caretakers believe the play therapist will have a magic wand and that putting their child in therapy will immediately fix all behavioral issues. Fortunately, most of the parents I have worked with understand that play therapy is a process and takes time to build a therapeutic relationship with their child that creates change.
Other times, parents will question what I am doing in a play therapy session with their child and have trouble recognizing that the act of playing and being fully present with their child is impactful in itself. Being fully present allows the child to experience all their emotions without needing to be worried about filtering because of parental or societal expectations.
What are some of your favorite resources and book recommendations for parents and caretakers?
There are so many good children's books! I love picture books and try to end all my sessions with one. The Invisible String by Patrice Karst is a great one for all families. Trudy Ludwig has a few good books too - like The Power of One or The Invisible Boy. I also like How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham, After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpy Got Up Again and The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld. For parents, I recommend resources by Robyn Gobbel, Dr. Becky Kennedy, and the Big Life Journal.
Share one fun fact about you that most people don’t know.
Playing piano and walking outside alone is my therapy!
What’s one of your favorite things to do in San Diego with children?
There are so many outdoor things to do with children - such as the San Diego Zoo, the beach, Balboa Park, the museums, etc.