On 17 March 2026, ACAMH will host a webinar Unlocking Therapeutic Powers of Play: Practical Techniques for Safe and Effective Play Therapy.
We caught up with the presenter – Laura Hanks, a Senior Lecturer at the University of South Wales and BAPT Accredited Play Therapist with experience across public and private sectors – about the topic itself, her career, and her hopes for the event.
What first got you interested in this area, and how did you come to specialise in it?
I had a background in social care, play and youth work, plus a BPS psychology degree from Cardiff. I qualified as a play therapist in 2014 so I could work closely with children and their families.
What do you mean by play therapy, specifically for this webinar?
It’s important to make this clear, because there is a lot of confusion around the language.
Play therapy is a specific clinical intervention supporting primary school age children to build a therapeutic relationship to process past or current experiences – using a person-centred approach, similar to counselling, however the primary medium of communication is play.
Therapeutic play uses play differently: it’s a way of building rapport, helping children understand procedures, or ‘garnering’ information in developmentally appropriate ways, as part of another clinical activity.
This webinar isn’t about becoming a play therapist – that would need a lot more training than just a two-hour webinar, although I’d be delighted if any attendees were inspired to do that training as a result. What this webinar will do is support clinicians to harness the therapeutic power of play as part of their existing practice, to improve communication and engagement with children and young people.
How exactly can this help clinicians to do that?
If you can explain things playfully, the child is more likely to understand what’s being communicated and feel emotionally safe to receive it, compared to just being told. There’s a huge difference.
Sometimes parents take their child to a CAMHS appointment and the child completely shuts down. They leave feeling they couldn’t share what their child’s actually like. That’s quite common. Therapeutic play can bridge that gap.
Can you give an example of a particular toy or game that can be effective?
Jenga – it’s the real unsung hero of therapeutic play. It starts as a collection of bricks with endless possibilities; stacking, dominoes, anything. You can build information-gathering into the game. You can use it from very young children right through to adults.
Also, the power of a sand tray is immense. Put it within reach of a child, and often they can’t help but put their hand in the sand, make swirly patterns. That immediately gives you an in, because the child has chosen how to engage. The power comes from making things available, but not forcing the young person to do anything. As soon as you say ‘this is what we’re going to do’, lots of children go into defence mode.
How might approaches be adapted for neurodivergent, non-verbal or trauma-affected children?
I’ll be talking about the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics – the neuroscience helps us understand developmentally where children are in their play, and how different activities benefit children at different stages.
For different reasons – whether developmentally because they’re younger, or if they’ve experienced trauma – children have different cognitive and emotional abilities. Their ‘fight, flight, freeze’ responses might be activated and primed for survival. Or they might not yet have cognitive abilities to play a board game.
There are real differences in whether a child can engage in role play or structured games or if they’re drawn to the embodiment of sensory play. The models informed by neuroscience helps people work out where to pitch play activities. If you play a structured getting-to-know-you game with a child who has limited verbal comprehension, they’ll really struggle, but there are other options
How can you recognize if a child you’re seeing would benefit from play therapy itself?
I think it’s when the child has something impacting their everyday life and would benefit from a space which is just theirs to process what’s happened, including if they’re developmentally unable to talk about it. Children are also often referred for presenting difficulties where medical tests show no biological cause – enuresis or encopresis, for example.
In play therapy, children don’t have to tell you what happened. They can use metaphor and symbolism, change places with characters, play out scenarios unconsciously about felt senses.
Importantly, a child can come regardless of diagnosis. Play therapy works primarily within the social model of disability; Play Therapy responds to individual needs of children. Some children come on a pathway for medical diagnosis but have also experienced trauma or emotional difficulties. Occasionally, as they process and recover from trauma, traits flagged for the diagnosis pathway actually start to reduce, or children develop coping strategies for challenges they experience
Who do you hope will attend the webinar, and what do you hope they’ll achieve?
Anyone who wants to integrate play into their practice – support staff, nurses, social workers, psychologists. And potentially inspire people to train in play therapy as career progression, or know when to refer children on when therapeutic play isn’t enough.
I also want people to understand how to signpost to registered play therapy services. Because it’s not a protected title, we recommend looking for therapists registered with BAPT or PTUK – both are regulated by PSA, Professional Standards Authority. These registers ensure they must provide ongoing CPD evidence, clinical supervision, and be qualified at postgraduate level.
Where next?
This session, ‘Unlocking Therapeutic Powers of Play: Practical Techniques for Safe and Effective Play Therapy‘, focuses on exploring the therapeutic powers of play and how it can be safely used across settings, as well as understanding when a child may need more structured play therapy.
About the speaker
Dr. Laura Hanks – ACAMH Branches Liason Officer
Laura joined the Association as a graduate from Cardiff University school of Psychology in 2010, when she attended a Wales branch conference on Sleep. Shortly after joining the Wales Branch, Laura became the youngest Chair in ACAMH. Laura worked in Social Care before training as a BAPT Accredited Play Therapist ® and Filial Therapist, working with families with children who are Care Experienced. Laura is newly appointed as a Senior Lecturer in University of South Wales alongside her private practice. She has worked within both the public and private sectors, and is currently an associate trainer for a charity. In her time as Chair of the Wales Branch, Laura founded ACAMH’s first student committee. Laura joined the board as Branches Liaison Officer in December 2020.
Responding to the changing context during and post Covid19, Laura is passionate about the benefits of ACAMH membership to professionals working across sectors and in diverse roles in providing evidence based practice in mental health and wellbeing for the benefit of children and adolescents.
