How we work · Ages 5–12
Play Therapy for Children in Spokane Valley, WA
Play therapy is an evidence-based form of child counseling that uses play — a child's natural language — to help kids express feelings, process hard experiences, and build coping skills. Child, Marriage & Family Counseling offers play therapy in Spokane Valley, WA for children ages 5 and up, including sessions with a Certified Play Therapist.
What is play therapy?
Ask a 6-year-old to explain their anxiety and you’ll get a shrug. Watch them play, and it’s all there. Play therapy is a well-researched clinical approach built on that fact: children process experience through play the way adults process it through conversation.
In our playroom, a child might use the dollhouse, puppets, art materials, or the sand tray. The therapist tracks the themes — what keeps getting buried, rescued, locked up, repeated — and works within the play to help the child express what happened, feel safe, and practice new ways of coping.
What play therapy helps with
- Anxiety and fears
- Trauma and difficult life events
- Divorce and family change
- Grief and loss
- Behavior struggles and big emotions
- Adoption and foster care experiences
- Social skills and self-esteem
Related approaches
Play therapy at our practice often weaves in art therapy and sand tray therapy — different creative languages for the same clinical work.
Getting started
Reanna Thompson, Certified Play Therapist, and Lori Schuerer, M.Ed, LMHC, both work extensively with play therapy — meet the team or contact us.
Common questions
- Is play therapy just playing?
- No. To a trained play therapist, the play is structured and purposeful — themes in a child's play reveal what they're working through, and the therapist uses specific techniques within play to help them process feelings and practice new skills. It looks like play because that's the medium; the clinical work is constant.
- How is a play therapist different from a regular counselor?
- Play therapists have specific post-graduate training and supervised experience in play-based clinical methods. Our team includes a Certified Play Therapist practicing under RPT-S (Registered Play Therapist Supervisor) supervision.
- How many sessions does play therapy take?
- Every child is different, but meaningful change commonly emerges over roughly 12–20 weekly sessions. Your counselor will review progress with you regularly.