MAKE A MELODY
MUSIC THERAPY
Play Therapy
Northern Ireland
Our Play Therapy Approach
At Make a Melody, we embrace the healing potential of play as a therapeutic vehicle. Our exceptional play therapy services extend throughout Northern Ireland, delivering specialized support to those requiring it most. We have cultivated a team of highly qualified play therapists who integrate their knowledge of child development with professional expertise to design impactful, individualised interventions for each client.
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Play therapy represents a clinical, evidence-supported practice that harnesses play's therapeutic capabilities to assist children in preventing or resolving psychosocial challenges while achieving optimal development. Through thoughtfully curated toys and materials within a secure environment, our therapists enable children to articulate and investigate their emotions, thoughts, experiences, and behaviours.
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Our Play Therapy Services
Individual Sessions
Parent-Child Relationship Therapy
Our parent-child relationship therapy equips caregivers with capabilities and insights to become therapeutic facilitators in their child's world. Through organized training and guided implementation, parents discover how to conduct specialized play sessions with their children at home, reinforcing the parent-child connection while addressing behavioral and emotional issues.
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Within these sessions, parents enhance skills in reflective listening, therapeutic boundary-setting, and play-based communication. This methodology not only supports the child's current needs but also strengthens the caregiver's ability to respond effectively to future challenges, generating enduring positive transformation within the family dynamic.
The cornerstone of our practice revolves around personalized play therapy sessions. These tailored experiences establish a secure, nurturing atmosphere where children express themselves through their natural play language, exploring dimensions of their experiences that might be challenging to convey verbally.
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During individual appointments, our therapist focuses entirely on comprehending and responding to your child's distinctive engagement with play resources. Together, they explore various toys, construct symbolic scenarios, or process emotions embedded in spontaneous play. These individual interactions develop into profoundly significant spaces where children frequently achieve emotional processing breakthroughs, cultivate coping abilities, and build resilience that extends into other life domains.
Filial Therapy Groups
Our filial therapy groups unite small collections of parents and caregivers to acquire play therapy techniques applicable with their children. These gatherings provide both structured instruction and community reinforcement as parents master new approaches for understanding and responding to their children's needs.
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In a Make a Melody filial therapy group, you'll discover a carefully structured yet supportive framework that harmonizes skill advancement with collaborative learning. Our therapists adeptly facilitate group interactions that cultivate understanding, foster reflection, and nurture community connection. Participants frequently uncover new perspectives about their children and themselves through relationships with fellow group members.
What happens in a Play Therapy Session?
The therapeutic methodologies and instruments we utilize at Make a Melody are as varied as the children we assist. Each represents a distinct pathway for therapeutic play engagement, and our sessions frequently integrate multiple approaches to create a holistic therapeutic experience.​
Child-Centered Play Therapy
In this non-directive methodology, the child guides the play while the therapist provides a secure and accepting environment. The therapist mirrors the child's feelings, thoughts, and actions, establishing a relationship where the child feels completely seen and understood. Through this interaction, children develop self-awareness, self-regulation, and confidence.
Directive Play Therapy
In certain situations, our therapists may introduce particular play activities designed to address specific challenges or therapeutic objectives. These structured experiences can help children develop targeted skills, process certain events, or work through identified issues while continuing to engage through playful interaction.
Sand Tray Therapy
Creating worlds in sand offers a powerful expressive and processing medium. Using miniature figures and objects, children construct scenes in sand trays that often symbolize their internal experiences, concerns, wishes, and conflicts. This symbolic representation allows for processing emotions and experiences with appropriate therapeutic distance.
Art and Creative Expression
Drawing, painting, sculpting, and other creative pursuits provide children with powerful nonverbal expressive channels. These creative processes frequently reveal thoughts and feelings children cannot yet verbalize, giving therapists insight into their internal world while offering children satisfying outlets for emotional expression.
Therapeutic Storytelling
Stories possess a unique capacity to communicate complex concepts accessibly. Our therapists employ existing narratives and help children create their own to explore challenging feelings, model healthy coping, rehearse new behaviors, and develop more positive perspectives about themselves and their experiences.
Play-Based Assessment
Our assessment process employs play to understand the child's development, concerns, strengths, and needs. By observing how children interact with various toys and materials, our therapists gain valuable insights into their emotional state, cognitive functioning, social capabilities, and specific challenges.
Therapeutic Games
Specially crafted games provide structured opportunities to develop specific skills while maintaining play's engaging quality. These games might address emotional recognition, social skills enhancement, problem-solving, or other targeted therapeutic goals within a format that feels natural and enjoyable for children.
Our Assessment Pathway
We believe effective therapy begins with comprehensive understanding. Our assessment process aims to create a detailed picture of your child's needs, strengths, and goals before developing their customized treatment plan.
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1. Initial Consultation
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The journey commences with a meaningful conversation with parents or caregivers where we attentively listen to your concerns about your child, their background, and your therapy expectations. This provides an opportunity to ask questions, express preferences, and begin establishing the trust that will underpin our therapeutic relationship.
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2. Comprehensive Assessment
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Following this discussion, we conduct a thorough assessment that observes and explores your child's interaction with play materials. Unlike conventional psychological evaluations, our play therapy assessment encourages active participation through play experiences, revealing valuable insights that might not emerge through conversation alone.​
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3. Personalised Treatment Plan
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Based on this detailed assessment, we develop a tailored treatment strategy with specific, measurable objectives unique to your child's situation. This plan functions as a roadmap for our collaborative work, identifying priority areas and establishing markers to monitor progress.
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4. Regular Progress Reviews
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Throughout our work together, we conduct periodic progress evaluations with parents, documenting changes, celebrating achievements, and refining our approach as needed. This ongoing assessment ensures our therapy remains responsive to your child's evolving requirements.
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Meet Our Northern Ireland Play Therapy Team
The essence of Make a Melody's success resides in our exceptional play therapist team. Each brings not only advanced specialized training in play therapy but also a unique combination of experience, clinical specializations, and personal qualities that enhance their therapeutic work.
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Our therapists come from diverse professional backgrounds—early childhood education, child psychology, social work, counseling, and beyond—creating a team with remarkable versatility in understanding children's needs. This diversity enables us to match clients with therapists whose approach aligns with their family's preferences and requirements.
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Beyond their play therapy foundations, our therapists have pursued specialized training in areas including trauma-informed practice, neurodevelopmental disorders, attachment theory, parent coaching, and special education. Many possess additional qualifications in related fields that bring interdisciplinary perspective to their play therapy practice.
Tori Sergeant
Play Therapist
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​As a Play and Creative Arts Therapist, I love being able to offer children and young people an alternative way to express and process how they are feeling which goes beyond words. I am passionate about promoting the healing power of play and have experience delivering sessions in community and school settings. My areas of expertise include anxiety, attachment and trauma.
Lisa McManus
Play Therapist​
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Lisa is an accredited Play Therapist, Certified Filial Play Parent Coach/Mentor, and a Certified Forest School Leader. She has over 20 years experience of working with children and young people, and their families as well as supporting professionals who work with them.
Who Can Benefit From Play Therapy?
Play therapy's beauty lies in its remarkable versatility and accessibility. At Make a Melody, we witness daily how play-based interventions support children facing diverse challenges.
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Emotional Difficulties
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Children experiencing anxiety, depression, fear, anger, or other emotional challenges often benefit from play therapy's unique capacity to process feelings. Play's symbolic nature provides safe distance for exploring difficult emotions while developing healthier coping strategies.
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Traumatic Experiences
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For children who have experienced trauma, abuse, neglect, or loss, play therapy offers a gentle pathway for processing overwhelming experiences. Through repeated symbolic play, children can make meaning of their experiences, release associated emotions, and develop a more integrated sense of self.
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Behavioural Challenges
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Children exhibiting aggression, withdrawal, defiance, or other concerning behaviors can express underlying needs through play. Our therapists help children develop more effective behavioral responses while addressing challenging behaviours' root causes.
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Social Difficulties
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Children struggling with peer relationships, social skills, or friendship formation find in play therapy a supportive environment to practice social interactions. Through therapeutic play, children develop understanding of social cues, appropriate responses, and healthier relationship patterns.
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Family Changes
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Major transitions such as divorce, remarriage, relocation, or siblings' birth can be processed through play. Our therapeutic approaches help children adjust to changes, express related feelings, and develop resilience during family transitions.
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Developmental Concerns
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Children with developmental delays, autism spectrum disorders, or other developmental differences benefit from play therapy's adaptable approach. Our therapists tailor play experiences to support development across domains while honoring each child's unique pace and growth style.
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Medical Challenges
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For children facing illness, hospitalization, or medical procedures, play therapy offers crucial emotional support. Medical play allows children to process their experiences, reduce anxiety, and develop a sense of mastery during challenging health situations.
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These categories merely outline play therapy's application scope. The reality we observe daily is that each child brings a unique constellation of needs, strengths, and circumstances. Our approach always begins by seeing the whole child, not just a diagnosis or behavior.
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Specialised Porgrammes
Play therapy's beauty lies in its adaptability across childhood. At Make a Melody, we've developed specialized approaches for different age groups, each addressing the unique developmental needs and challenges of that life stage:
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Early Childhood (2-5 years)
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For our youngest clients, our early intervention programs establish foundations for healthy development. These sessions engage children through developmentally appropriate play activities that support attachment, emotion regulation, and crucial early social skills.
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School Age (6-12 years)
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School-age children discover in play therapy a compelling self-expression medium during these formative years. Our approach acknowledges their growing cognitive abilities while continuing to engage through play, their natural language. Through carefully selected therapeutic activities, we support emotional regulation, social navigation, and identity formation.
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Adolescents (13+ years)
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For older children and teens, we adapt our play-based approaches to incorporate more mature creative expression forms. These might include art, sand tray work, game play, and other expressive activities that honor their developmental stage while providing therapeutic support for their unique challenges.
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Family Play Therapy
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Recognizing that children exist within family systems, we offer family play therapy sessions where multiple family members engage in therapeutic play together. These sessions improve family communication, strengthen relationships, and help develop healthier interaction patterns under our skilled therapists' guidance.
Settings We Serve
Play therapy's adaptability allows us to bring its benefits to children in virtually any environment. Our Make a Melody therapists have become valued members of interdisciplinary teams across numerous settings throughout Northern Ireland:
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Educational settings
In schools, preschools, and SEN units, our therapists collaborate with teachers and educational psychologists to support students' developmental and emotional needs through consistent, school-based sessions.
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Healthcare facilities
In hospitals and medical centres, play therapy offers emotional support during challenging medical experiences while contributing to overall wellbeing as part of comprehensive care approaches.
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Mental health services
In both outpatient and inpatient facilities, our therapists provide a developmentally appropriate medium for emotional expression and healing for children who benefit from specialized mental health support.
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Child welfare services
In foster care systems, adoption agencies, and family preservation programs, play therapy supports children experiencing caregiving relationship disruptions while promoting healthy attachment and adjustment.
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Community centres
Youth groups and community programs provide contexts where play therapy reaches children who might not otherwise access support, often in group formats that build peer connections alongside individual growth.
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Private practice
Our in-office sessions provide access to a wide range of specially selected therapeutic toys and materials, while in-home sessions eliminate transportation barriers for families with particular needs.
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Hospice and palliative care
Our therapists provide compassionate support for children facing serious illness or loss, using play to process difficult emotions, maintain normalcy, and create meaningful memories during challenging times.
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Across all these settings, our therapists maintain the same high practice standards while adapting their approach to honor each environment's unique culture and constraints.
Play Therapy offered across Northern Ireland
Play's therapeutic benefits should be accessible to every child, regardless of location. That's why we've established a skilled play therapist network across all Northern Ireland counties, ensuring geographical location never impedes quality care access.
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Our Regional Coverage:
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From the bustling streets of Belfast to the serene countryside of Fermanagh, our therapists bring their expertise directly to the communities they serve:
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County Antrim - Our team supports clients in Belfast, Ballymena, Carrickfergus, and numerous surrounding communities.
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County Armagh - We're actively engaged in Armagh city, Lurgan, Portadown, and neighboring areas.
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County Down - Our services extend throughout Newry, Bangor, Newtownards, and beyond.
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County Fermanagh - The communities of Enniskillen and surrounding areas benefit from our dedicated therapists who understand the unique character of the region.
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County Londonderry/Derry - We serve both the vibrant city areas and quieter towns like Coleraine.
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County Tyrone - From Omagh to Dungannon, our therapists are deeply integrated into local healthcare and education networks.
This comprehensive regional coverage allows us to form lasting relationships with clients, families, and referring professionals while developing an intimate understanding of each community's specific needs.
The Science Behind Play Therapy
Play engages multiple brain regions simultaneously, creating neural integration that few other activities can match. When children engage in therapeutic play, their brains activate areas responsible for:
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Emotion processing and regulation in the limbic system
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Social understanding in the social brain network
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Motor planning and coordination in the cerebellum and motor cortex
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Language and symbolic thinking in language centers
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Memory and attention in the prefrontal cortex
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Stress response management in the HPA axis
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This whole-brain engagement creates unique therapeutic intervention opportunities. For instance, when verbal processing areas are not yet fully developed in young children, play therapy provides an alternative emotional expression pathway. For children who have experienced trauma, play activates neural pathways that allow for processing experiences in a non-threatening manner.
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Evidence-Based Outcomes
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Research-documented outcomes mirror what we observe daily in our practice. Studies consistently demonstrate play therapy's effectiveness in:
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Reducing emotional and behavioral symptoms across diverse presenting problems
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Improving self-regulation and impulse control
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Enhancing social skills and peer relationships
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Building resilience and coping strategies
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Strengthening attachment relationships
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Processing traumatic or difficult experiences
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Supporting healthy development across domains
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As researchers continue refining their understanding of exactly how and why play therapy works, our practice evolves to incorporate these insights. We maintain connections with university research departments and participate in clinical studies that contribute to our profession's growing evidence base.
We noticed changes almost immediately after starting play therapy. The aggressive outbursts at home and school became less frequent, and our son began to use words instead of actions to express his feelings. His therapist helped us understand what he was communicating through his play, and gave us strategies to support him at home. The transformation has been incredible to witness.
Parent of a 8-year-old client
Frequently Asked Questions
​​​​​We understand that you may have questions about play therapy and how it might benefit you or your loved one. Here are answers to some of the questions we commonly receive:
Q: My child is just playing—how is this therapeutic?
A: Play is children's natural language and their primary means of processing experiences and expressing feelings. Our therapists are specially trained to understand play patterns, themes, and choices' therapeutic significance. Through carefully selected materials and therapeutic responses, play becomes a powerful healing and growth vehicle.
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Q: How long are play therapy sessions?
A: Individual sessions typically last 40-50 minutes, while parent consultations and family sessions may range from 45-60 minutes, depending on needs and attention spans. During your initial consultation, we'll discuss the optimal session length and frequency for your situation.
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Q: How many sessions will be needed?
A: Session numbers vary based on individual goals and progress. Some children benefit from short-term therapy (8-12 sessions), while others with more complex needs may engage in longer-term work. We establish clear goals during the assessment process and regularly review progress to ensure therapy remains beneficial.
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Q: Is play therapy covered by insurance or funding schemes?
A: Some health insurance plans and educational funding may cover play therapy. We can provide documentation to support funding applications. Additionally, we work with various charitable organizations that sometimes provide therapy service grants. Our administrative team can offer guidance specific to your situation.
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Q: How will I know if play therapy is working?
A: We take a comprehensive progress measurement approach, combining objective assessments with parent and teacher observations. For each goal in your child's treatment plan, we establish specific, observable progress indicators. We maintain detailed session notes and provide regular updates to help you track therapy benefits.
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Q: What is my role as a parent in my child's play therapy?
A: Parents are essential therapeutic process partners. We typically schedule regular parent consultations to discuss progress, share session insights, and provide guidance for supporting your child at home. Sometimes we may invite you to participate directly in sessions, particularly in family play therapy or filial therapy approaches.
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Q: What toys and materials do you use in sessions?
A: Our playrooms are equipped with carefully selected toys and materials chosen for their therapeutic potential. These typically include art supplies, sand and water, puppets, dollhouses, dress-up items, construction toys, and symbolic play figures. Each item serves a therapeutic purpose and offers children multiple self-expression ways.
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Q: Do you offer online or virtual play therapy sessions?
A: Yes, we offer telehealth play therapy sessions when in-person services aren't feasible. While we generally find in-person sessions most effective for young children, our telehealth option has proven valuable for families in remote locations, those with transportation challenges, or during circumstances preventing in-person meetings. We provide guidance on setting up a simple home play space to support these virtual sessions.
Getting Started with Play Therapy
Beginning your play therapy journey with Make a Melody is a straightforward process designed to ensure you receive the most appropriate and effective care for your unique situation.​
1. Contact Us
The first step is reaching out through your preferred method—our online form, direct email, or office phone call. During this initial contact, we'll gather basic information about your child and your concerns.​​
2. Initial Consultation
Following initial contact, we'll arrange a parent consultation. This conversation helps determine if play therapy aligns with your child's needs. The therapist will explain our approach in detail, answer your specific questions, and discuss how play therapy might address your child's particular circumstances.
3. Assessment Session
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If you decide to proceed after consultation, the next step is scheduling assessment sessions. These initial meetings allow the therapist to build rapport with your child, observe their play material engagement, and gather information needed to develop a personalized treatment plan.
4. Begin Your Play Therapy Journey
Based on assessment, your therapist will develop a treatment plan with specific goals and approaches tailored to your child's needs. Once established, regular sessions will begin according to the recommended frequency.
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Throughout this process, we emphasize transparent communication, respect for your family's preferences, and attention to practical considerations such as scheduling, location, and financial arrangements. Our goal is making high-quality play therapy accessible and ensuring your experience from first contact through ongoing sessions feels supportive and responsive to your needs.
Connect With Us
Our work at Make a Melody thrives on connection—with clients, their families, professional networks, and the wider community. We invite you to stay engaged with our services and the evolving play therapy field.
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Our social media presence offers regular insights into our work, sharing therapeutic approaches, client successes (with permission), and the latest play therapy research. For more direct and detailed updates, our newsletter delivers curated content directly to your inbox, including articles, announcements, and practical tips for incorporating therapeutic play into family life.
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We welcome direct contact for questions, referrals, or service feedback. Whether you're a parent seeking child services, a professional considering referral, or simply someone curious about play therapy, we're here to engage with your questions and needs.