Experiential Play Therapy (EGT) is a play therapy approach that emphasizes the child's innate capacity to heal and move towards the good and reframes the child's inner workings in the healing process in the context of developmental theory.
This method allows the child to express their emotions through the symbols they use in play.
Developed by Byron Norton and Carol Norton, Experiential Play Therapy, or DOT, respects and honors children by reaching them through play and entering their world. By understanding children's experiences from their point of view, the therapist builds a safe and strong relationship with the child within a framework of respect.
In Experiential Play Therapy, children express their developmental needs, relationship issues, emotionality, past traumatic experiences and all kinds of perceptions of well-being through play using toys and play materials, associations and symbolic themes.
Experiential play allows the child to repeatedly work on his/her perspective on the events that disturb him/her and to work on this perspective over and over again in environments and conditions in which he/she feels safe. In this context, it allows the child to confront emotional pain, conflicts and problems, and to re-approach the memories of traumatic events from the developmental level at the time of the events.
In order for children to benefit from Experiential Play Therapy, they must be able to engage in symbolic play. Developmentally, the ability to symbolize starts at 20 months of age, but some children are ready at 18 months and some at around 2.5-3 years of age.
Experiential Play Therapy is a proven model that can be safely applied to a wide range of issues from birth traumas to attachment problems, from sleep/eating/toilet problems to anxiety disorders and phobias.
