Our Play Therapy Bus will go to 5 schools in Oxfordshire per year, working one-to-one with up to 75 children who are struggling emotionally and academically. In the sessions the children will explore issues that are bothering them at home through the medium of Play. The beauty of Play Therapy is that it doesn't require the children to talk about their problems that may be complex and difficult to understand. Through Play, children are able to express themselves with an experienced therapist.

Although Oxfordshire is considered an affluent county, there are areas of extreme social deprivation which in the bottom 10% of the UK. We also live in a very rural county, with many families limited by transport and ability to access services outside of school time. Our Play Therapy Bus project will provide access to specialist therapy services that may otherwise be well out of financial and geographical reach of many families.

It is expected that each of the children we work with will have a reduction any emotional or behavioural difficulties that will enable them to continue learning, making friends and allow them to be a child again. The results are likely to have a life long impact as we work to make positive psychological changes at a time when the brain is most capable of change. It is more difficult as an adult to change old patterns of thinking or behaviour, so we need to nip the problems in the bud.