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Reflection exercise
Think of a difficult situation that you managed to repair afterwards . What did you do ? How did you feel during it ? How do you think the child felt ?
4.3.3 Play
Play is a natural way to heal .
Play helps children to thrive , process experiences , learn and express feelings . A child traumatised by sexual abuse can process its experience through play , and find meaning , control , solutions and a sense of coherence . Some children will play the same game over and over again ; they seem stuck in destructive themes associated with the abuse . These children might need help to find hope , and new forms of play . Some children stop playing altogether after abuse , a very severe effect that can have developmental consequences for the child . Such children need help to recover the ability to play .
Advice and ideas for play
HELP AND ACTION
EXERCISE
Make sure that the child has a safe place to play . Be interested , available and supportive when you play together with the child . If the child seems helpless and out of control , help to find solutions . Follow the child ’ s lead and focus on what the child shows you . Remember that children can reexperience their trauma during play . They may want you to be the victim or give you a role . Help the child to find safe ways to express what has happened to it . If the child re-enters a traumatic state , for example because it has re-enacted the abuse , the child may become hyperactivate , impulsive , lack body control , become numb or break contact . Try to restore contact and bring the child back to here and now . Good ways to do this include playing catch together , singing a song , or helping the child to organise a game or build something .
Workshop exercise . Share a play-memory from your childhood Aim . To make contact with your playfulness . Duration . 7 minutes . Instructions .
• Go back to your childhood and try to remember yourself playing . You can be playing alone or with another child or an adult . How old were you ? What was the play about ? What did you enjoy ?
• Share this memory with the person sitting next to you .