Using a Neurobiological Lens in Child-Centered Play Therapy
By: Dr. Samantha Long, PhD, LPC, RPT, NCC
Why connection, play, and relationship are doing way more than we actually think…
In recent years, many play therapists have become increasingly interested in neurobiology, including myself, and I believe it is for a good reason. Neuroscience is helping us put language to what many of us have always known intuitively: play heals, relationships matter, and children move toward growth when they feel safe enough to do so.
But here’s the important part: we don’t need to become neuroscientists to use a neurobiological lens…Instead, we can let neurobiology deepen our understanding of what we are already doing in Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT).
Play Therapy and the Brain: A Natural Fit
Importantly, play supports child development at large and brain development in profound ways. When we use play, the natural communication of children (Landreth, 2023), children are able to grow their brains in developmentally appropriate ways, often described as a bottom-up process.
Through play, children engage the lower, more sensory and emotional parts of the brain first, which creates the foundation for higher-order thinking and integration (Malchiodi, 2021). In this way, play helps strengthen the brain’s prefrontal cortex and executive control system, which are involved in emotional regulation, planning, problem-solving, learning, and integrating different parts of the brain (Gaskill & Perry, 2014; Sivij, 2016). In other words, through play, children are not only expressing themselves, they are actively building the neural pathways that allow them to regulate, reflect, and respond more adaptively over time.
What research continues to show us is that when we integrate neurobiology and play therapy, there is a powerful connection: play and relationships don’t just support development, they shape the brain itself (Gaskill & Perry, 2014; Wheeler & Dillman Taylor, 2016).
Through play, children are:
Organizing their experiences
Integrating emotions and memories
Developing regulation
Building a sense of self
Play is not “just play.” It is a neurobiological process of integration, linking the brain, body, and relationships. When we think of Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT), this is where that very natural alignment occurs, because this process unfolds within the context of a safe, attuned relationship.
Regulation Before Insight: Dr. Bruce Perry’s Sequence
One of the most profound and helpful frameworks I came across was from Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model, particularly coming across a chapter in Cathy A. Malchiodi and David A. Crenshaw’s Creative Arts and Play Therapy for Attachment Problems Book. Chapter 11, written by Gakill & Perry, highlights the neurobiological power of play.
At its core, there is a simple but powerful idea, which is: children cannot access higher-level thinking when they are dysregulated (which means learning, problem-solving, and using their executive functioning skills go offline).
When a child is overwhelmed:
The “thinking brain” (cortex) is less accessible
Survival systems take over
Reasoning, insight, and language won’t land
This is why Perry emphasizes a sequence:
REGULATE → RELATE → REASON
So what does this mean exactly?
Regulate: Helps the child feel safe in their body (think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs-physiological)
Relate: Builds connection and attunement (think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs-safety and love and belonging)
Reason: Only then can insight, reflection or learning can occur (think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - self-esteem and self-actualization)
In fact, neurodevelopmental research shows that therapeutic change often begins from the bottom up, through sensory, rhythmic, and relational experiences, not through talking alone (Gaskill & Perry, 2014; Malchiodi, 2021).
Connection Before Redirection
If you know me or know us here at Integrated Play Connections Therapy Center, you have heard this phrase: connection before correction (or redirection). The phrase comes from The Whole Brain Child, written by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson. Neurobiology tells us that when we take the time to validate emotions, it calms the nervous system, which then opens pathways for higher-order parts of a child’s brain to come back online.
Children integrate best when:
They feel seen
They feel heard and understood
They experience emotional safety
Only then can they:
Shift behavior and problem solve
Reflect
Try something new
What we often call the be-with attitude is actually doing profound neurological work…supporting integration across emotional and cognitive systems, engaging a child’s whole brain-body connection.
References
Gaskill, R.L., & Perry, B.D. (2014). The neurobiological power of play: Using the neurosequential model of therapeutics to guide play in the healing process. In C.A. Malchiodi & D.A. Crenshaw (Eds.), Creative arts and play therapy for attachment problems (pp. 178-194). Guilford Press.
Landreth, G.L. (2023). Play therapy: The art of the relationship (4th ed.). Routledge.
Malchiodi, C. (2021). Creative interventions with traumatized children (2nd ed.). Guilford Publications.
Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396.
Sivij, S.M. (2016). A brain motivated to play: Insights into the neurobiology of playfulness. Behaviour, 153(6-7), 819-844. doi:10.1163/1568539X-00003349
Wheeler, N., & Dillman Taylor, D. (2012). Integrating interpersonal neurobiology with play therapy. International Journal of Play Therapy, 21(3), 137-152.
