The hospitals of our university started to provide play therapy services for all the children in need, especially for those coming from the earthquake zone.

Prof. Dr. Fatih Horozoğlu, Chief Physician of the Hospitals of our university, said: “The Disaster Support Polyclinic at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Polyclinic of Mustafa Eraslan-Fevzi Mercan Children’s Hospital has started to provide service for quake-victim children. We have started to offer play therapy services for both quake-victim children and other pediatric patients in this polyclinic.”

Assoc. Prof. Esra Demirci, Head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, said: “For the patients who applied to our department after the earthquake that hit our country, Disaster Support Polyclinic was established and play therapy services started for children.”

Mentioning about the history of play therapy, Assoc. Prof. Esra Demirci continued as follows: “Play therapy has a history of almost a century and is a way of communicating with children. In play therapy, the children express themselves using play, which is their natural language. In addition, they portray the problems they experienced by playing games and discover their feelings that they are not able to describe.”

She also added: “There are many different theoretical approaches regarding play therapy; in addition, play therapy practices are basically grouped under three headings as directive, non-directive and family play therapies. The most frequently preferred age group for play therapies, which can be applied to different age groups such as infants, children and adolescents, is between the ages of 3-12. With the play therapy techniques prepared by considering developmental periods they are in, it is aimed to develop problem-solving abilities of children and to enable the children to feel themselves psychologically better. The play therapy is also helpful for the treatment of many psychological disorders.”