Play Therapy & me

26/01/2025

Super excited for this new addition to our art making station in the playroom. Let’s celebrate our uniqueness! 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙

21/09/2024

🕊️ 🕊️

16/08/2024

Play is not just for our kiddos! Experience the power of play this weekend with the ARTSwork Collective team at the Sensory-Space in the Children's Memorial Institute building in Jozi and become a Big Kid again!

If you are in Johannesburg and want to experience arts therapy in action, you can join two of our part-time lecturers, Rozanne Myburgh and Kamal Naran for "The art of play". It takes place tomorrow in the Sensory space at the Children's Memorial Institute in Parktown.

Bookings with rozannemyburgh@gmail.com or https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_tCghwxlJVpGNgwc7zCzsKSskXvYrf3YJYiEz1kYYIuZpgA/viewform

05/08/2024

❤️

Christine Derengowski, Writer 🩷

31/07/2024

Another wonderful tool for the counselling room to explore our emotions and talk about those big feelings that often hide behind anger.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful work with us.

22/06/2024

What a magical morning spent at the an absolute must for our neurodivergent kiddos, and adults. Thank you for sharing your beautiful space with us. ❤️

05/05/2024

The devastating effect of caregiver trauma on children.

Thank you for sharing this infographic NICABM

When someone experiences trauma, its physical and emotional effects can sometimes impact their children.

Stress triggers cortisol release, a natural coping mechanism. But when trauma disrupts cortisol, it can influence not only the client but also their children, leaving an epigenetic mark.

Curious how? Check out our infographic to understand how trauma can pass through caregivers. ➡️ https://www.nicabm.com/how-a-caregivers-trauma-can-impact-a-childs-development-infographic/?del=5.5.2024.FBPost2

12/04/2024

Working on a new collection of transitional objects for the playroom. Originally developed by Donald Winnicott, research shows that the transitional object facilitates the continuation of the counselling relationship beyond the playroom between sessions.

04/04/2024

ALL behavior makes sense. Sometimes we just need to look a little further than what the child is showing us. ❤️‍🩹🧸🏡

Thank you for sharing this infographic GoZen: Anxiety Relief for Children

15/03/2024

Another important aspect we need to keep in mind is that kids learn from watching us! Remember to practice mindful breathing during your own big feels. Modelling the behaviour we want to see in our kids is the #1 way they learn. IN for 3 OUT for 5. 🌈😮‍💨🧘

I often go into schools to talk to kids and teens about anxiety and big feelings.

I always ask, ‘Who’s tried breathing through big feels and thinks it’s a load of rubbish?’ Most of them put their hand up. I put my hand up too, ‘Me too,’ I tell them, ‘I used to think the same as you. But now I know why it didn’t work, and what I needed to do to give me this powerful tool (and it’s so powerful!) that can calm anxiety, anger - all big feelings.’

The thing is though, all powertools need a little instruction and practice to use them well. Breathing is no different. Even though we’ve been breathing since we were born, we haven’t been strong breathing through big feelings.

When the ‘feeling brain’ is upset, it drives short shallow breathing. This is instinctive. In the same ways we have to teach our bodies how to walk, ride a bike, talk, we also have to teach our brains how to breathe during big feelings. We do this by practising slow, strong breathing when we’re calm.

We also have to make the ‘why’ clear. I talk about the ‘why’ for strong breathing in Hey Warrior, Dear You Love From Your Brain, and Ups and Downs. Our kids are hungry for the science, and they deserve the information that will make this all make sense. Breathing is like a lullaby for the amygdala - but only when it’s practised lots during calm.♥️

10/03/2024

5-4-3-2-1 …. One of our favorite grounding techniques we teach our kiddos. Especially useful for those overwhelming moments to bring them back to the here and now. Free bonus … it’s pretty useful for adults too.

Thank you for another wonderful resource. ❤️

05/03/2024

What is in our arts & crafts station? Absolutely everything! Having a variety of materials available, our little clients have the opportunity to express themselves in any way or form they might need during a play-based counselling session.