Gestalt Play Therapy
A Holistic Approach to Children's Wellbeing
What Is Gestalt Play Therapy?
Gestalt play therapy is one of the most established, well-researched, and widely respected therapeutic frameworks for working with children in South Africa and internationally. It was developed as a child-specific application of Gestalt therapy — a holistic approach to human wellbeing that focuses on the whole person: their thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, behaviour, and relationships.
In a Gestalt play therapy framework, children are not broken down into symptoms or diagnoses. Instead, they are seen as whole, creative, and inherently resilient human beings whose struggles make sense within the context of their life and experiences. The therapist’s role is to provide the conditions in which that natural capacity for healing and growth can emerge.
The Core Principles
Holism
The child is seen and supported as a whole person — not just the behaviour, not just the emotion, but the complete, interconnected human being: body, mind, feelings, and relationships. Nothing is treated in isolation.
Present-Moment Focus
While understanding a child’s history is important, Gestalt play therapy focuses primarily on what the child is experiencing now — in the therapy room, in this moment. Healing happens in the present, not in the past.
Awareness
A central goal of Gestalt play therapy is helping the child become more aware of their own feelings, needs, sensations, and patterns of behaviour. This growing self-awareness is itself therapeutic — it is the foundation of self-regulation and healthy emotional development.
Contact
In Gestalt therapy, healing happens through genuine, safe contact — between the child and the therapist, between the child and their own inner experience, and between the child and the wider world. Building the capacity for real, present-moment contact is at the heart of the work.
Self-Regulation
Gestalt play therapy trusts the child’s own inner wisdom and capacity for growth. Rather than imposing solutions from the outside, the therapist supports the child to develop their own ability to regulate their emotions, meet their own needs, and navigate their world with increasing confidence.
How It Looks in Practice
A Gestalt play therapy session takes place in a well-equipped play therapy room. The child has access to a carefully selected range of therapeutic materials — sand trays, puppets, dolls, building materials, art supplies, clay, storytelling tools, and miniature figures — all chosen specifically for their therapeutic potential.
The therapist does not direct the play. Instead, they follow the child’s lead, gently tracking the themes, patterns, and emotions that emerge through what the child chooses to play with and how they play. Over time — sometimes quickly, sometimes gradually — the child’s inner world begins to reveal itself through the play, and healing becomes possible.
Gestalt Play Therapy in South Africa
In South Africa, Gestalt play therapy is championed and taught by The Centre for Play Therapy and Training — widely regarded as the country’s leading accredited institution in this field. The Centre’s training programme has produced play therapists across South Africa and internationally, and its approach is rooted in decades of research and practical experience.
Sulene Swanepoel has completed both Level 1 and Level 2 Gestalt Play Therapy Intervention training through The Centre for Play Therapy and Training. Her training gives her a rigorous, structured, and evidence-based foundation for working therapeutically with children across the full spectrum of emotional, behavioural, and developmental challenges.