Helplink Mental Health are delighted to announce the news of a recently launched new service in the Galway centre.
Parent-Child Attachment Play (PCAP) helps parents to strengthen the relationship between themselves and their children through dedicated weekly play times to reduce emotional and behavioural challenges.
PCAP helps parents to manage time, environment, emotions and help their children to make helpful choices. Parents are introduced to tools to increase parental sensitivity and understanding which is proven to increase attachment security in children.
Parents and carers are often concerned about their children’s behaviour and that by adopting a playful attachment approach they will somehow lose control over their family life. In fact, the opposite is true. When the parent-child relationship is working, helpful child behaviour generally follows and family life becomes more manageable which can also lead to a positive change in school.
PCAP for Parents involves sharing three key skills with parents and carers through weekly interactive workshop-style sessions across 6 weeks (or more if required). Once these skills are well-established, the parent or carer is helped to transfer them to problematic areas of home life.
Anne Cahill is Helplink’s PCAP practitioner having trained in this with Big Toes Little Toes Ireland (https://bigtoeslittletoesirl.com), as well as being a certified play therapist.
More information about play therapy is available here: https://www.helplink.ie/counselling/play-therapy-galway-mayo/
