Ubuntu Play and Creative Therapies

Aim

We want to offer vital play and creative therapy to children and families, but we need your help to create a working playroom to do this!

Who are we? 

We are Ubuntu: four qualified play therapists (registered with BAPT and PTUK) who have recently established a community interest company looking to provide play and creative therapy for children and families experiencing emotional or situational difficulties. We believe that connection is vital to wellbeing. We created Ubuntu to provide a service that gives children an opportunity to connect to themselves and their environment through play to improve wellbeing. 

What is play therapy?

Play is a child’s natural method of communication, so we use play rather than talk to support children who have emotional difficulties such as anxiety and depression, or who have experienced difficult life circumstances such as bereavement, parental separation, domestic violence or abuse. Play therapy is suitable for children aged 4-12 years but can also be used for older children who prefer creative methods. 

We offer weekly 1:1 play therapy sessions with children for approximately 16 sessions in a space filled with creative tools such as art equipment, water, clay, sand, role play items, puppets, musical instruments, doll's house, toy symbols and lego. Through our work together, the child is given the time and the space to process difficult emotions and find long-lasting healing in these areas. 

 Why is Play Therapy important?

A global pandemic has brought the importance of good mental health to the forefront of our awareness. For many families, this pandemic has created - and exacerbated existing - difficult situations. Our play therapy service has never felt more needed. Play Therapy UK tell us that out of  8000 children who accessed play therapy through their therapists, 74-83% of them made a positive change as a result of play therapy (https://playtherapy.org.uk/about-play-therapy/about-us/).

 We know this therapy makes a difference to the families we work with! By donating to our project, you are donating to provide long-lasting, permanent change in the wellbeing of families that access our services. 

How will your donations help us?

To make our vision happen, we need a fully equipped play therapy room. We have, very excitingly, already secured a room in Bristol to conduct play therapy from. However, this room needs work to make it into a functional, welcoming space. We are looking for funds to enable us to lay some new, clean flooring, redecorate and make it clean and safe for use with children. We will then need to acquire all the necessary furniture and equipment needed to start our work. We estimate that we will need £1000 to do this to a minimum standard, £2000 to make it a really exciting, versatile space.

As well as setting up our rooms, a fundamental aim of Ubuntu is to make therapy accessible to a variety of economic backgrounds, including families who may not be able to access funding streams or afford the costs of private therapy. Any extra money raised will go towards discounting therapy for children that need it. £600 would enable a family to access a full course of play therapy at half the market rate. 

This project successfully funded on 3rd September 2021