Children often communicate differently than adults. Many children do not yet have the words, emotional awareness, or developmental ability to fully explain their thoughts, feelings, worries, or experiences. Instead, children often express themselves through play, imagination, creativity, movement, and behaviour.
At WJW Counselling & Mediation, we offer play therapy and sand tray therapy interventions for children in St. Albert, Edmonton, Peace River, and virtually across Alberta where appropriate. These therapeutic approaches provide children with a safe, supportive, and developmentally appropriate way to process emotions, build coping skills, strengthen emotional regulation, and work through difficult experiences.
Our child therapists create compassionate, child-centered spaces where children can feel emotionally safe, understood, and supported while developing healthier ways to express themselves and navigate life’s challenges.
Play therapy is a developmentally appropriate counselling approach that uses play, creativity, imagination, and therapeutic interaction to help children express emotions, process experiences, and develop healthy coping skills. Because children often communicate differently than adults, play allows children to express thoughts and feelings they may not yet have the ability to verbalize directly.
Play therapy interventions may include:
Children often communicate important emotions and experiences through play in ways that feel safe, natural, and emotionally manageable.
Sand tray therapy is a specialized therapeutic intervention that allows children to use miniature figures, objects, and sand to create scenes or symbolic representations of their inner world. Through the sand tray process, children can express emotions, relationships, fears, experiences, and worries in a safe and non-verbal way.
Sand tray therapy may help children process:
Sand tray therapy can provide valuable insight into a child’s emotional experiences while helping them build emotional safety, self awareness, coping skills, and resilience.
Specialized Play Therapy Room
WJW Counselling & Mediation offers a specialized play therapy room designed to help children feel emotionally safe, comfortable, and engaged in the counselling process. Our therapeutic play space includes child-centered tools, therapeutic toys, imaginative play opportunities, creative interventions, and emotional regulation supports tailored to children’s developmental and emotional needs.
The play therapy room provides children with opportunities to:
We also offer a sensory therapy room designed to support emotional regulation, calming, sensory processing, and nervous system regulation for children and teens. The sensory room can be especially beneficial for children who feel emotionally overwhelmed, anxious, reactive, overstimulated, or dysregulated.
The sensory therapy space may support children experiencing:
The sensory room helps create a calming therapeutic environment where children can feel more regulated, emotionally safe, and better able to engage in therapy.
Play-based therapy interventions can help children:
Therapy is individualized to meet each child’s emotional, developmental, sensory, and relational needs.
At WJW Counselling & Mediation, our therapists provide compassionate, trauma- informed support for children and families. We understand that children often require emotional safety, connection, trust, and regulation before they are able to fully process difficult emotions or experiences. Our approach focuses on helping children feel understood, supported, and emotionally safe while building resilience, emotional awareness, and healthier coping strategies.
Children may benefit from play therapy or sand tray therapy when experiencing:
Parents and caregivers are an important part of the therapeutic process. Depending on the child’s age and needs, therapy may include parent consultation, family sessions, attachment-focused support, emotional regulation strategies, and guidance to strengthen communication and connection within the home.
Our goal is to support not only the child individually, but also the overall emotional wellbeing of the family system.
What age groups benefit from play therapy?
Play therapy is commonly used with young children and school-aged children, though play-based and creative interventions may also benefit older children and teens depending on their emotional and developmental needs.
Can play therapy help children with anxiety?
Yes. Play therapy can help children experiencing anxiety, fears, emotional overwhelm, school stress, social worries, separation difficulties, or emotional dysregulation. Through play-based interventions, children can safely explore emotions while building coping strategies and confidence.
Can play therapy help after separation or divorce?
Yes. Many children struggle to process the emotional impact of separation, divorce, blended family transitions, or family conflict. Play therapy and sand tray therapy provide children with a safe and developmentally appropriate way to express emotions and process family changes.
Do parents participate in play therapy?
Parents and caregivers are often involved in the therapeutic process depending on the child’s needs and goals. Therapy may include parent consultation, family sessions, emotional regulation support, and strategies to strengthen attachment and communication at home.
How do I know if play therapy is right for my child?
Play therapy may be beneficial if your child is struggling emotionally, behaviourally, socially, or within family relationships. During the intake process, our therapists help determine the most appropriate therapeutic approach based on your child’s developmental needs, emotional concerns, personality, and goals for therapy.
Do you offer play therapy in St. Albert, Edmonton, and Peace River?
Yes. WJW Counselling and Mediation provides play therapy, sand tray therapy, and child counselling services in St. Albert, Edmonton, and Peace River, with virtual counselling options available across Alberta where appropriate.