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
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Self-expression
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Access to the
unconscious -
Indirect teaching
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Direct teaching
Fosters Emotional Wellness
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Catharsis
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Counterconditioning fear
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Abreaction
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Positive emotions
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Stress inoculation
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Stress management
Enhances Social Relationships
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Social competence
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Empathy
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Attachment
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Therapeutic relationship
Increases Personal Strenghts
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Self-regulation
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Creative problem solving
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Resiliency
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Accelerated psychological development
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Moral development
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Self-esteem
Meet Our Therapist Emma Cooper
Emma Cooper - Bed, MCPT
Master Qualified Child Play Therapist
Hi, I’m Emma — the Founder and Principal Psychotherapist at Ebb & Flow Play Therapy. For over 20 years, I have worked alongside children and families across a range of settings, developing a deep understanding of child development, attachment, and the relational systems that shape a child’s world.
My career began working with children in paediatric dentistry before moving into family support roles within remote communities, women’s and children’s crisis services in the Northern Territory, and later into primary school teaching. These diverse experiences have shaped my compassionate, trauma-informed approach to supporting children and families through complex and varied life experiences.
With a background in Education, Child Development, and Play Therapy, I am passionate about meeting children and families where they are, ensuring they feel safe, respected, and supported throughout the therapeutic process. I believe that play is a child’s natural language and that healing and growth occur through safe, trusting relationships. I work collaboratively with families, supporting children and caregivers to build emotional regulation, connection, and resilience while being gently held through moments of vulnerability and change.
At Ebb & Flow Play Therapy, I bring together my experience, clinical training, and relational approach to create a calm and nurturing therapeutic space where children and families can feel seen, supported, and free to grow at their own pace.
I integrate attachment-based and neurodevelopmentally informed approaches into my work and have completed additional training in LEGO®-Based Therapy, Circle of Security Parenting™ and Theraplay®. These modalities support connection, co-regulation, social-emotional development, and relational safety for children and families with diverse needs.