How Puppets Are Used in Play Therapy – An Expert Insight

Yvonne Power, founder of the Irish Play Therapy Community Association (IPTCA), introduces the work and values of the association and shares her professional experience of how puppets can be used in play therapy to help children communicate and explore difficult experiences.

"IPTCA is a not for profit association it is a professional body that holds the highest standards of play therapy practice in Ireland, with over 100 members and 400 therapists in our community. We formed in 2020 to bring a community of play therapists together to support them, and to create a platform for them to support each other. 

Our values are rooted in providing the highest standard of services to children by supporting the therapists on the ground with connection, kindness, compassion, support, professional training, guidance, selfcare, safeguarding, to encourage collaboration and to make ongoing progress within the profession through advocating for all therapists and children here in Ireland.. 

Puppets are used for EPR Embodiment projection role, this is where the child is feeling the experience, finds it hard to express, may use a puppet to project the experience through so they can role play the lived experience in a safer, more objective way. It is about the puppet, not a\bout them, it creates space for them to create fully and freely the depths of the experience and to inform Play therapists along the way how the puppet might be feeling and what it needs. 

I have had children role play how they experienced bullying through puppets, too afraid to talk about it in the first person but could play it out so she could show me exactly what was happening and what was being said. In these situations we get to ask if a child has anything like that ever happened to them, this open ended question can give a child permission to own it as theirs or not. "

Yvonne Power, Founder, Irish Play Therapy Community Association (IPTCA)

About Puppets Ireland
My name is Myriam and I created Puppets Ireland, an Irish specialist supplier of quality puppets for teachers, therapists, libraries, early-years professionals and families. In this section, I share practical ideas, real-life experiences and professional insights showing the many ways puppets can support learning, communication, emotional expression and imaginative play.