Ebb & Flow Play Therapy offers a warm and supportive environment for children and families to explore and address emotional challenges and growth through play. Our approach integrates therapeutic powers of play to promote emotional well-being and strengthen family dynamics. Contact us to begin your journey towards healing and growth.
Welcome to Ebb & Flow Play Therapy
Why Play Therapy?
Play Therapy is an evidence-based form of psychotherapy for children that supports emotional healing, regulation, and development through the child’s natural language ~ play.
Children’s brains are still developing, and many children do not yet have the cognitive or verbal capacity to fully articulate their thoughts, feelings, or experiences. Instead, children communicate through play, behaviour, movement, and imagination. Play Therapy honours this developmental reality by meeting children where they are, offering a safe and supportive therapeutic space to explore experiences, emotions, and challenges at their own pace.
Our approach
Our approach centres on play therapy, family therapy, and relationship-based support, with an understanding that children grow and develop while being shaped by the systems and relationships around them. We know children grow best when they feel safe, understood, and supported within their everyday relationships and environments. For this reason, our work extends beyond the play space to include parents, carers, and the wider systems involved in a child’s life.
At Ebb & Flow Play Therapy, we walk alongside families with care and curiosity, offering insight, guidance, and practical support so the growth that unfolds in therapy can gently carry into home, school, and community life, allowing children and families to grow at their own pace.
Discover the Therapeutic Powers of Play
Facilitates Communication
-
Self-expression
-
Access to the
unconscious -
Indirect teaching
-
Direct teaching
Fosters Emotional Wellness
-
Catharsis
-
Counterconditioning fear
-
Abreaction
-
Positive emotions
-
Stress inoculation
-
Stress management
Enhances Social Relationships
-
Social competence
-
Empathy
-
Attachment
-
Therapeutic relationship
Increases Personal Strenghts
-
Self-regulation
-
Creative problem solving
-
Resiliency
-
Accelerated psychological development
-
Moral development
-
Self-esteem
Meet Our Therapist Emma Cooper
Our team are dedicated to providing individualised care and support to every child and family. We are committed to creating a safe and nurturing space where healing and growth can flourish.
Emma Cooper - Bed, MCPT
Master Qualified Child Play Therapist
Emma is the founder and principal psychotherapist at Ebb & Flow Play Therapy. For over 20 years, she has worked alongside children and families in a wide range of settings, bringing a deep understanding of child development, relationships, and the systems that shape a child’s world.
Her career began working with children in paediatric dentistry, before moving into family support roles in remote communities, women’s and children’s crisis services in the Northern Territory, and primary school teaching. These experiences have shaped a strong, compassionate, and trauma-informed approach to supporting children and families through complex and varied life experiences.
With a background in Education, Child Development, and Play Therapy, Emma is passionate about meeting children where they are and supporting families in a way that feels safe, respectful, and collaborative. She believes play is a child’s natural language and that healing and growth happen through strong, trusting relationships.
At Ebb & Flow Play Therapy, Emma brings together her extensive experience, clinical training, and relational approach to create a calm and nurturing space where children and families can feel seen, supported, and free to grow at their own pace.