Sandra Wieland, PhD.
Registered Psychologist

Individual therapy for children, adolescents, &adults
Consultation for therapists

Clinical Practice

• What is EMDR?
• What is play therapy?
• Parents's role in their child's therapy
• Stopping the Cycle

Types of training and consultation provided:

• Therapy - The Brain's Second Chance (.pdf file)
• The Internalization Model
• Dissociation: Creative Coping
• An Important Form of Therapy for Children - EMDR (.pdf file)

The Centre for Counselling and Therapy

Professional Credentials

Publications

Home

What is play therapy?

Children are often unable to express in words what is happening within them. They are even less able to process through words the distress and confusion bottled up inside.

Play is children's normal mode of working though problems. As children play, their anxieties, fears, wishes, and dreams are portrayed. Therapists trained in child development and play are able to recognize the themes emerging within the play, pictures, and stories. By naming these themes together with the child's emotions, by asking further questions, by correcting mistaken internal beliefs, by enabling the child to start to feel alternative outcomes, a therapist is able to help the child work through problems.

As problems are worked through, the child is able to continue healthy development, become closer to his/her parents, and feel greater happiness.

EMDR can play an important role in therapy with children. EMDR can help the child built a sense of safety, become more aware of her/his internal strengths, and work through anxieties, fears, and past traumas. Even traumas that are not within the child's active memory can be worked through with play therapy and EMDR.