Trained play therapists use play to diagnose and treat psychological issues among their patients, who usually, but not always, are children. Play therapy also can be used to help adolescents, teens, adults, seniors and families.

Elizabeth W. Gonzalez, more often known as Beth, is the founder and chief executive officer of FairView Counseling, located in a beautifully restored mansion along Perkiomen Avenue in an area of Reading that has been designated a historic district.

She also is a registered play therapist. That means she is licensed professional counselor who has been trained as a play therapist and is recognized as such by the Association of Play Therapy Inc., a California-based national organization with a mission of promoting play therapy and play therapists.

Gonzalez believes in play therapy, she said, because she has seen it work, time and time again.

"Kids really show you where they are through their play," Gonzalez said. "They play out what their feelings are, and they tend to mimic what's going on in their lives as they play."

Good at Playing
While children typically are very good at playing, they usually are not as accomplished at verbally expressing their feelings, doubts and fears.

Inviting a child to enter a playroom that's filled with hundreds of different toys gives him or her an opportunity to located toys with which the child can express his or her feelings. Most children, Gonzalez said, have no difficulty finding the toys they want.

"They usually come in and look around and then go right to where they need to be," she said. "It's uncanny."

A child experiencing family related problems often will use figures to create a family and then act out events that may be occurring at home or have occurred in the past.

The figures the child chooses might be people, but children also create families of animals or others objects, Gonzalez said. Troll dolls, which are cute little creatures with long, wispy hair and troll-like faces that became popular during the 1960's, make good tools for kids creating families.

"They make great families," Gonzalez said. "They come in all different sizes and kids can do a lot with them.

Watching scenarios
By watching the scenarios the child creates and the relationships between "family" members, Gonzales is able to get an idea of what the child has been experiencing and can begin working to further explore and resolve the child's' difficulties.

She also conducts a thorough family history before treatment begins to obtain additional information. Play can be used to treat clients who are defiant, shy or withdrawn; suffering from attention deficit disorder; traumatized by an event or series of events; depressed; worried about a recent or pending divorce; or experiencing other types of problems.

Because Gonzalez and FairView's other staff members and board believe every child should have access to a full range of health care, the agency offers a sliding scale to clients who are uninsured or under insured.

"It's an important part of our mission to get those people who make too much money to qualify for the regular social services that are available, but don't have insurance to pay for private services," Gonzalez said.

The agency periodically holds fundraising events to raise money to subsidize reduced-rate service.

While most of FairView's clients are kids, it's not unusual for adolescents, teens and older people to seek counseling there. Sand tray therapy which allows clients to use miniature figures to create scenes, interactions and situations in wet or dry sand, is popular among adolescents and adults.

Play therapy has its critics, and some clients, especially adults, are more comfortable with talk therapy. Gonzalez, however, is enthusiastic about the success she has using play therapy, and want to spread the work that it works.

"If you know how to watch someone play and what to look for, you get all kinds of clues about what's going on", Gonzalez said. "Once you have those clues, you can begin to put them together and make a difference in that person's life."