The Play Therapies Centre Ltd

03/02/2026

🌟 Exciting News: Welcoming Solace Holistics to the Centre! 🌟
​At the Play Therapies Centre, we know that for a child to thrive, their big people need to be poured into, too. That’s why we are so thrilled to welcome Francesca Pagni from Solace Holistics to our community! 💜

While your little ones are busy expressing themselves and growing through play, we’re now offering a space for YOU to reset and recharge.
​Why this matters for Parents & Carers:
​Caregiving is a physical job. From lifting and carrying to the mental load that settles in your shoulders, your body carries the story of your hard work. Francesca specializes in helping you release that tension so you can show up as your best, most regulated self.
​Services available include:
​✨ Sport & Relaxing Massage – To ease those "parenting posture" aches.
​✨ Dry Needling & Cupping – For deep-seated tension and chronic knots.
​✨ I.A.S.T.M. – Targeted recovery for active carers.
​Take a moment for yourself:
​Self-care isn't selfish; it’s maintenance for the most important person in your child’s life. Let’s tackle the burnout together—one session at a time.
​📅 Bookings now open!
📞 Call/Text Francesca: +44 7733374809
📧 Email: info@solaceholistics.co
📲 Follow: .holistics
​Welcome to the family, Francesca! 🧘‍♀️✨
​

30/01/2026

💔💔💔RIP Catherine O'Hara

What an actress! From Kate McCallister in Home Alone where she showed us the map of the mother caretaker. How its possible as a mother to transform.

She took us on a journey of the rigid glue trying to hold the family together in all the chaos, to the "shattered caregiver" realising bad things happen on her watch. She was so obsessed with order that she forgot the individual. ...to transform into the fierce protector.

She sheds the "polite" version of the Caregiver. She stops caring about the "Importance" of the flight or the "Rules" of the airport. She moves into a Primal Maternal Archetype.

She showed all of us that the transition from the caregiver archetype to the fierce protector is one of the most transformative journeys a person can take. ❤️

28/01/2026

There is no "right" way to heal, and while some find confrontation empowering, others find it more harmful than helpful.

You might want to consider play therapy even as an adult.

You might choose a figure to represent yourself and another to represent the abuser. This allows you to "confront" them symbolically, express your anger or pain, and visually change the power dynamic in a controlled space that keeps you safe.

Why this might be better than a real confrontation:

​Safety: You are in a secure room with a professional. The abuser cannot hurt you, gaslight you, or deny your reality.
​Control: You can stop the "confrontation" at any moment. You are the one in charge of the narrative.
​No "Need" for a Response: In real life, we often confront people hoping for an apology that never comes. In therapy, the focus is on your release and your healing, regardless of what the other person thinks.

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk
https://youtube.com/shorts/CVZZtxO180o?si=CzcyVYsGkyrK6Kji

Waiting desperately for "Purse Poncho" to come out! Check out our Season 1 Compilation episode, out now! Listen wherever you get your podcasts ➡️Monica Share...

24/01/2026

TRANSFER TEST

"What if I fall?"
"Oh but darling, what if you fly?"
-Peter Pan

Good luck to all the kids today. You got this ❤️

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

04/01/2026

❄️❄️❄️❄️With the hurry of the Christmas clean-up, back-to-work and school, and New Year resolutions, remember that those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are still deep in winter’s time of hibernation and quiet.

“. . . There is not yet a call to begin again, for beginnings will come soon enough. This is the fallow time. This is the time of rest.
There is magic in all seasons, but winter’s magic is most concise. It is a reminder for your nervous system....NOT EVERYTHING IS URGENT.

Art: Elaine Bayley

01/01/2026

Happy New Year 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

30/12/2025

With 2026 a few days away I’ve been thinking about how HUGE the calendar change felt almost half a century ago when I was a young girl. The excitement of living in a whole new year built up for weeks, and staying awake until midnight was a challenge I was eager to accomplish. I just knew the world would feel different at the stroke of midnight.

When you stop to actually think about it its quite mind blowing.

As the world completes rotating around its own axis in 24 hours, it orbits around the sun with a speed of 30 km/hr and it does not even make a second's delay in completing its yearly tour. (happy new year ⭐).

Every planet and solar system spinning around in a mathematical rythm for millions of years.

There is great meaning in this harmonious turning; an unbroken bond in existence, and a unity. Everything uses a silent language to give a meaningful message to insightful hearts.

A person who can view existence with eyes of wisdom and manages to hear creation's silent melody becomes enraptured with this rhythm.

What brings order to life is the existence of rhythmical motion and the continuity of this order, which gives people a sense of security and makes life easier. One can make daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly plans.

If a baby is born the innate rythm and cycle between child and carer known as attachment and bonding - a cycle begins, a motion a rythm and a dance.

As children or adults when our rythm is put out of balance by stressful life events or trauma, our inner biorythms, cardio rythm and emotional rythm can become disordered.

Rythmical order is required to support us when life becomes out of balance.

When this process is disrupted, our human physiology will give us clues of discomfort or uneasiness. This is our intuitive intelligence, which creates the space of living consciously, allowing us to dance to the rhythm of the universe. It is important to listen deeply to our intuition, to the conversation the universe is constantly having with us, whether we choose to listen or not.

Play Therapy with its roots in attachment rythm, music rythm, movement rythm, creative rythm and emotional rythm can act as a safe place for your child and your family to find and maintain the rythm and balance.

That journey begins with only one step, though, so I hope you will stop and take the time to get back in touch with the rhythms of your life. ❤️❤️❤️
www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

25/12/2025

As we finally wrap up our work in 2025 we want to wish you all all very Happy Christmas.

A big thank you to all you parents and carers who have gone the extra mile for your children this year. A big thank you to the referrers who advocate tirelessly for the children they work with and who have worked as key workers throughout this mad and crazy year. Finally, a big thank you to all our amazing Associate therapists. You all have worked tirelessly through this year supporting the emotional well-being of children accross Northern Ireland. We honestly are blessed to have each and every one of you on-board. So here's to you, Thank you on behalf of all the children and families. xo❤️❤️

20/12/2025

In Play Therapy, Christmas symbols (like the evergreen tree, star, light) tap into the collective unconscious, representing archetypes of hope, rebirth, and transformation, resonating deeply with humanity's inner need for meaning beyond personal experience, connecting to figures like the "magic" of Santa as a projection of the Self or inner guiding spirit. In play therapy, these symbols (and new ones created) become tools for children to express unconscious struggles and healing, making the inner journey tangible through sand trays and drawings, revealing profound inner states and potential for growth.

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

19/12/2025

My favorite Christmas movie is “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

The film's journey is George's path to individuation, where he moves from identifying solely with his ego (his struggles) to recognizing his connection to the larger "Self" (the universal life force and community).

These aren’t fictions of a movie plot—they are struggles of all humanity.

The importance of this film is that "your life matters".

We should embrace both the film’s existential anxiety and its inspirational resolution. We should think about our ripples out into the world and our regrets, and how a full life is necessarily full of both.

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

16/12/2025

🎁🎀Presents or presence?

Human connection is held together by presence more than by language or duration. Whether in partnership or friendship, what sustains the bond is the care we bring through attention. When awareness drifts, intimacy thins, and the unseen framework begins to erode.

What receives your attention gains clarity and form. What is ignored loses definition. The world does not arrange itself through ideas alone, but through where awareness is consistently placed.

Those who create this awareness understand this without instruction. Those who love recognize it immediately. Love is the act of resting awareness fully on another being. From this orientation, compassion naturally unfolds. Care is not produced by effort, but by continuity of attention.

This is to understated reality.

To truly attend to another is not to offer something external. It is to offer presence itself.

www.theplaytherapiescentre.co.uk

14/12/2025