I'm Seren, a play therapist. Children rarely have the words for what's hurting, but they can always play it. My job is to give your child a safe, warm room to do exactly that, and to keep you properly in the loop the whole way.
Their teacher used the words 'struggling to settle', and you have not stopped thinking about it since.
Since the separation, or the move, or the new baby, the tantrums are bigger, the sleep is worse, and your patient voice is running out.
They've gone quiet in a way that isn't like them, and every time you gently ask, the door closes a little more.
You've read the books. You've tried the sticker charts and the worry monster. You are doing everything right and it is still hard.
Part of you is worried about them, and another part is quietly worried that asking for help means you've failed. For the record: it means the opposite.
Fifteen free minutes on the phone. You tell me what's been happening, I tell you honestly whether play therapy is the right next step. If it isn't, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.
A parent consultation, without your child in the room. We take a proper history: what's changed, what school is seeing, what home feels like. You'll never be asked to explain the hard stuff in front of them.
Fifty minutes in the playroom, weekly, same day and time. Play is a child's first language, so that's the language we work in: the sand tray, puppets, paint, stories, whatever your child reaches for. Your child leads. I keep it safe. To them it feels like play. Underneath, it's the big feelings being worked out at a pace they can manage.
We review together every six weeks or so: the themes I'm seeing, what's shifting, what might help at home. The details of your child's play stay private to them. Their progress never does.
Everything starts with a free 15-minute phone chat, just you and me, no child involved yet. Then we plan properly together, and your child only ever meets me once you're confident it's the right next step.
50 minutes
Weekly one-to-one play therapy for children aged 4 to 11. For big feelings after big changes: separation, loss, worry, anger, school struggles, and the things children can't yet put into words.
45 minutes
A 45-minute session for parents, without your child. For taking a proper history before play therapy begins, for review points during the work, or for honest guidance when you're not yet sure what your child needs.
15 minutes · free
Fifteen minutes on the phone, just you and me. You tell me a little about your child, I tell you honestly whether play therapy is the right next step, and nobody is put on a list or chased with a sales call.
Before I was a play therapist I was a hospital play specialist, spending my days on a children's ward in Cardiff with a trolley of toys and a job the medics half-joked was magic: getting frightened children ready for the things nobody could talk them into. Ten years of that teaches you something no textbook quite says. Children can face almost anything, but they do it through play, in their own order, with a safe adult nearby. Eventually I wanted to offer that depth properly, one child at a time, so I retrained as a play therapist, and the trolley became a room.
I work with children aged 4 to 11, and with their parents, because you are half of this work. Families come after separations and bereavements, after moves and new siblings, after school has used careful words in a corridor conversation, and sometimes simply because a child has gone quiet, or gone stormy, and nobody can say why.
Asking a six-year-old to sit down and explain their feelings is asking them to work in a second language. Play is the first one. In the playroom your child chooses: the sand tray, the puppets, the paints, the dressing-up basket. They lead, I follow, and I keep the whole thing safe. To your child it feels like play. Underneath, it's the difficult stuff being picked up, examined and slowly put down, at a pace their nervous system can actually manage.
Safeguarding children is the first duty of this practice, before technique, before rapport, before anything else. I hold an enhanced DBS check, the most thorough criminal-record check available for people who work closely with children, and I will always show you the certificate. I'm registered with Play Therapy UK, the UK's professional register for play therapists, and I work within its ethical framework and under regular clinical supervision. If anything a child shared ever made me worried for their safety, I would act on it immediately, involving you at every step unless doing so would put your child at greater risk. You should expect nothing less from anyone who works with your child, and I'd encourage you to ask every practitioner you consider these same questions.
Play therapy is not a service you drop a child at. We start with a parent consultation before your child ever meets me, and we review together every six weeks or so: the themes I'm seeing, what's shifting, what might help at home. The details of your child's play stay private to them, their progress never does, and with your written consent I'll work alongside school as well.
You'll find us in a bright ground-floor playroom just off Cathedral Road in Pontcanna, with kite bunting on the wall, a sand tray in the corner, and a proper cwtch of a reading corner for the children who need to start slowly.
PTUK Registered
Play Therapy UK, the UK's professional register for play therapists. Registration means accredited training, an ethical framework built around children, and ongoing clinical supervision.
Enhanced DBS
An enhanced DBS check is the most thorough criminal-record check available in the UK, required for anyone working closely with children. Mine is current, and I will always show you the certificate if you ask.
Our daughter went from nightly meltdowns to telling us, in her own words, when something was wrong. Seren never once made us feel we had failed her, and that mattered almost as much as the change itself.
He asked every week if it was a playroom day. I don't know exactly what happened in that sand tray, and Seren was honest about why I didn't need to. What I know is that my boy came back to us.
The reviews were the part I didn't know I needed. Themes rather than transcripts, always honest, and we left every one with something practical to try at home.
I'll always share the themes: what your child seems to be working through, what's shifting, and what might help at home. The details stay private to your child, because the playroom only works if they know it's truly theirs. The one exception is safeguarding. If anything ever made me worried about your child's safety, I would act on it straight away, and involve you unless doing so would put your child at greater risk. I explain all of this in plain words before we start.
Simply and without drama. Something like: 'There's a playroom with a kind grown-up called Seren. Her job is playing and listening, and it's a place for when feelings get big.' No child should be told they're going because something is wrong with them. I'll help you find the words that fit your child before the first session.
Yes, and for this age group it's the most natural way to work. Children don't process difficult experiences by discussing them. They process them through play, which is why a child will replay the same story in the sand tray for weeks. Play therapy gives that natural process a trained witness, a safe room and a purpose. It's a regulated, supervised clinical discipline with its own professional register, not supervised playtime.
Most children need at least twelve sessions, and deeper work can take longer, so anyone quoting you an exact number from a website is guessing. What I can promise is honesty: we review together every six weeks or so, you'll always know what I'm seeing, and the work finishes when it's done, never strung out.
Then they're behaving exactly like a great many children do in their first sessions, and it's fine. Nothing in the playroom is demanded. A child who spends the first session silently inspecting the shelves is telling me something useful. And children who 'won't talk' are often the ones play therapy helps most, because it never needed them to.
Yes. There's a comfortable waiting area a few steps from the playroom, and parents stay for the whole session. Your child always knows exactly where you are, and for many children that certainty is what makes settling possible.
Completely. The colour is for the children; the substance is for you. I'm a PTUK registered play therapist, in ongoing clinical supervision, enhanced DBS checked and fully insured, and safeguarding sits above everything else in this practice. Children do their best work in a room that feels safe and warm, so that's how the room, and the website, look.
The playroom is a bright ground-floor room just off Cathedral Road in Pontcanna, ten minutes from Cardiff city centre and easy to reach from Canton, Llandaff and Riverside. There's a comfortable waiting area a few steps away, where parents stay during sessions.
The Playroom, 18 Pontcanna Street, Pontcanna, Cardiff CF11 9QF
Tell me a little about your child and what's been happening. A few honest lines are plenty, and there is no obligation in asking. If it feels right, we'll book a free 15-minute phone chat so you can hear how I work, ask anything at all, and decide in your own time. Your child only ever meets me once you're confident it's right.
Get in touchFree 15-minute parent phone chat · after-school appointments in term time