"Play therapy"

Before we met Julie, we were struggling to get our son to play at all, due to his global developmental delay. He would just sit and watch others play, with barely any interest in playing himself. This really worried us as we knew children learn through play. I was anxious that people would think I had neglected to try and play with him, even though I had tried everything I could think of. 

Our first contact with Julie was an hour long phonecall, where she asked me lots of questions about our son so she could come prepared for our first appointment. 

Julie arrived at our home for our first appointment and she was kind, friendly and so wonderful with our son. She really listened to my concerns, without any judgement, and gave me manageable and realistic goals for him. I couldn't believe it when he actually started interacting with us, and slowly but surely, he got better and better. At first, we saw Julie weekly, and I felt so supported, and even though he has multiple therapies, his not playing was something I was so worried about. 

Julie stripped his play right back, identifying very simple activities that he enjoyed and he thrived with much more simple activities than I had been trying with him. 

After a few months he would crawl to Julie's bag and see what else he could see to play with, this made me so happy, as previously he had no interest.

He will now play happily, and I know what my expectations should be and how to encourage play. 

When we were discharged by Julie, it was sad to say goodbye, however she reassured me she's always on the end of the phone if we need her. 

Julie became like a friend to me, even wiping a few tears of mine! I would recommend play therapy to anyone, it is so worthwhile and so underrated!