Child-Centered Play Therapy: Imaginative Play Will Always Matter

When it comes to play therapy, most people picture the ‘play’. Images of sword fighting, dollhouse drama, talking puppets and castles under siege have almost become shorthand for play therapy itself. That’s not wrong, even if it’s not the entire picture.

Imaginative play will always be one of the most powerful and developmentally respectful ways to communicate with children. Play is a core language of childhood, and it is especially important for children whose experiences are too complex, overwhelming, or emotionally charged to be held in words. Today’s culture minimizes this language, so children’s ways of knowing and expressing are usually treated as less valid than adult forms of communication. Adults privilege verbal insight, linear narratives, and rational explanations that are not developmentally familiar concepts, and then wonder why children are so ‘hard to understand.’ In the end, imaginative play is frequently dismissed as “just pretend”, rather than recognized as meaningful psychological work.

In CCPT, imaginative play is both expected and protected. A play therapist does not require children to translate their inner worlds into adult language in order to be taken seriously. We do not ask them to perform insight, explain themselves, or make their experiences legible in ways that prioritize adult comfort. Instead, we meet children where they are developmentally and relationally.

Additionally, imaginative play is not directed, analyzed or interpreted back to the child in CCPT. Instead the conditions are created that allow the play to happen. Safety, predictability, attunement, and freedom within clear structure make it possible for children to use symbolic play in ways that support integration and healing.

Play is a core language of childhood, and it is especially important for children whose experiences are too complex, overwhelming, or emotionally charged to be held in words.

Imaginative play gives children distance and proximity at the same time. A child does not have to say, “This happened to me” in order to show what happened. They can let the dinosaur, the superhero, the baby doll, or the villain carry the story. This symbolic distance allows the nervous system to stay regulated enough to engage. Imaginative play holds what words cannot.

From a neurodevelopmental perspective, imaginative play engages the parts of the brain responsible for meaning making, emotional processing, and integration. When children play symbolically, they are linking sensation, emotion, memory, and action. They are rehearsing responses. They are experimenting with power, control, safety, loss, protection, and repair. All of this happens without the cognitive demand of verbal narration.

For children impacted by trauma, imaginative play is where fragmented experiences can begin to organize. Since trauma can disrupt someone’s ability to create coherent narratives, imaginative play allows a story to be told in pieces, in repetition, and metaphor. Over time, themes may shift. Characters may gain allies. Endings may change. The child must lead this process because ultimately it is their system that knows what it needs.

Imaginative play is not always elaborate or theatrical. Sometimes it looks chaotic or aggressive, sometimes calm and repetitive, and sometimes it seems stuck. In CCPT, the process of play is not rushed. Repetition is not seen a failure of therapy because it is often evidence that the child is working something through at a pace their nervous system can tolerate.

Imaginative play supports identity development. Children try on roles, exploring who has power and who does not. They test boundaries, morality, loyalty, and belonging. In a culture shaped by adultism, children rarely have spaces where their authority over their inner world is respected. The playroom is a place where children’s perspectives are centered rather than corrected.

In Child Centered Play Therapy, honoring imaginative play is also an act of resisting childism.

In Child-Centered Play Therapist, all kids of play are recognized and valued. Sensory play, relational play, mastery based play, and creative expression are equally meaningful. Some children do not engage in symbolic play right away, or at all, and that does not mean therapy is not working. Childism shows up here too when we assume children should play in ways that match our expectations rather than honoring their individual nervous systems.

What makes imaginative play therapeutic in CCPT is not the content of the play, but the environment in which it occurs. A consistent therapist. Clear structure. Emotional attunement. Limits that protect safety and dignity. Within that container, imaginative play becomes a vehicle for self expression, regulation, and integration.

So yes, imaginative play is often what people think of when they think of play therapy. And while play therapy is far more expansive than that image, there is wisdom in its persistence. Children have always used imagination to survive, understand, and transform their experiences. In Child Centered Play Therapy, honoring imaginative play is also an act of resisting childism. It is a commitment to taking children seriously on their own terms, and trusting their capacity to lead their own healing.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/4837fb_ff012e3bcec9447eaa55c1449487d8db/480p/mp4/file.mp4

Watch Jen speak about a child's brain on imaginative play! (Length: 2 min 25 secs)

Go Deeper

Ready to deepen your clinical understanding of symbolic play? Join Jen and The Redwood Center for our 3-hour workshop, Slaying the Dragon: Making Sense of Imaginative Play in Child-Centered Play Therapy, on February 27th, 2026.

Learn to track complex themes, understand the neurobiology of the lower brain, and gain confidence in navigating fantasy worlds with your clients.

The recording will be available for purchase for 30 days after the live workshop.