Therapy Games

My Students

How does play therapy work? A safe, confidential environment is created where students can build such things as self-esteem, teamwork, communication skills, anger management, self-discovery, and coping skills through play. I strive to do this as the only K-12 school counselor in our school district.

We live on a small island in Southeast Alaska.

Our rural community consists of a variety of cultures, including people from the Tlingit and Haida tribes. I have 280 students, grades K-12. Some of my students come from low-income, migrant families. My students are curious, fun-loving and adventurous. They love to play games and try new things.

My Project

As part of our school counseling program, I provide bi-monthly classroom guidance lessons. I also do individual and small group counseling sessions, as well as Lunch Bunches. I will use these games to help students work towards better social integration, empathy, self-control, and trauma resolution. There are a variety of ways to turn ordinary games and crafts into skill building activities. For example, you can use games like Apples to Apples, Taboo, and Imaginiff as discussion prompts to talk about such subjects as fairness, independence, decision making, acceptance...etc. Monopoly can be used for goal setting and thinking about future careers. Totika Self-Esteem Game, a type of jenga game, can bridge the gap on topics ranging from healthy vs unhealthy decisions, to how to accept responsibility, and perseverance. I look forward to helping my students learn these attributes and skills through play.

Many of my students have faced the hard reality of drug and alcohol abuse, physical/emotional abuse, and suicide in our community.

We work hard to combat the negative effects of these things in the lives of our students, especially when it hinders academic progress. We do this by taking preventative measures in helping students develop problem solving and coping skills. I believe adding to my school counseling resource library will aid in having a variety of methods to do this with.