Appleyard Therapy

Currently working as a Children’s and Family Counsellor in Dapto, Philippa decided to also launch Appleyard Therapy to provide a different creative and play therapy space for clients in a quiet cottage setting amidst a duck yard and fruit trees.

Philippa has worked therapeutically with children, teenagers and adults for years and feels passionate about using expressive art, creative and play modalities to allow clients to express and explore feelings without always needing to use words.

All clients are unique and require an individual therapy approach. At Appleyard Therapy, Philippa may use one or a combination of the following therapies along with different talking therapies like Solutions Focused and Cognitive Behavioural Therapies in working with her clients. For child clients, parents or carers will be consulted in setting their goals for therapy and communicated with throughout their child’s therapy journey.

Therapies

Creative Therapies

Using paint, drawing, clay, craft materials and collage in therapy allows clients to explore thoughts, feelings and concepts visually in a safe place with a therapist who can help facilitate the process of growth and healing. Creative therapies use both brain hemispheres and it is the right hemisphere that is able to use non verbal ideas and sensory images to help with conflicts, challenges and emotional awareness.

Play Therapy

The main goal of play therapy is for a child to build an understanding of security deep inside themselves in a safe predictable environment which allows them to process feelings, worries or traumatic memories and to grow a sense of responsibility for control of their feelings. They can learn through the play therapy experience with a therapist alongside toys, games, dress ups, stories and puppets that feelings can twist and turn and lose their sharp edges. Through the therapeutic trust relationship established in play therapy interventions, a child can become free to use their capacities and emotions more constructively, and gain greater insight into their choices and behaviour.

Animal Assisted

At Appleyard Therapy outside the cottage in separate yards are a number of farmyard animals and pets. Child clients can safely watch these animals from the cottage verandah or if they feel comfortable interacting with animals can accompany Philippa to talk to, pat, collect eggs, or help feed the animals. In the therapy cottage there are plush toy representations of each pet animal to allow for imaginative play options. Interactions with safely trained animals can benefit child clients by teaching them greater empathy, reducing stress and anxiety levels, increasing oxytocin and serotonin, encouraging a sense of responsibility, growing confidence and by providing comfort.

Sandtray

Sandtray therapy allows a person to construct their own microcosm scene or world using miniature toys in large trays of wet or dry sand. The representative scene created by the client acts as a reflection of the person’s own life and allows them the opportunity to resolve conflicts, remove obstacles, and gain acceptance of self without the need for words. Often people are unable to verbalise their emotional states, particularly in the face of trauma. The nonverbal nature of sandtray therapy and the familiar medium of sand can help both children and adults to develop their own expression of situations with miniature toys to work through feelings and towards resolution over a series of sessions. 

Professional Supervisor

Dr Julie Nixon PhD MCoun PACFA CCAA