3 Favorite Play Therapy Activities to Use with Traumatized Children & Teens

If you’re a play therapist, you probably love discovering new creative activities to support children and teens on their healing journey. I’m the same way—and over the years, I’ve found a few tried-and-true play therapy activities that are especially helpful when working with trauma.

But before we dive in, I want to emphasize something important: Activities alone aren’t enough. They need to be grounded in a solid clinical framework that’s guided by theory and informed by research. That’s why I use an integrative play therapy model rooted in neuroscience and attachment theory. When your work is grounded in a clear, theory-based model, you’ll know exactly why you’re choosing each activity, when to use it, and how it fits into the broader change process.

That said, here are three of my favorite activities for trauma-informed play therapy—ones I’ve used with kids, teens, and even adults.

1. Connecting with the Body

Helping children tune into their bodies is foundational for trauma recovery. Trauma is often stored as implicit memory and sensory experience, making it hard to express with words. These activities are designed to build awareness and safety around physical sensations that connect to emotional states.

Start with Psychoeducation

Read Listening to My Body by Gabi Garcia. This beautifully illustrated book introduces the idea of noticing physical cues as emotional clues. It’s a gentle entry point for helping children learn how their emotions “talk” through their bodies.

Three Activities to Build Body Awareness

Option1: Body Scan + Gingerbread Figure
Guide the child through a short body scan meditation. Then, using a gingerbread figure worksheet, ask the child to:

Identify five emotions kids often feel
Assign a color to each one
Draw on the figure where and how each emotion shows up in their body

Option 2: Emotion Mandala
Have the child choose one emotion—such as fear or sadness—and create a mandala that visually expresses how that emotion feels in their body. Mandalas are soothing and symbolic, offering children a way to externalize their inner experience.

Option 3: Expressive Acting
Name five common emotions and take turns acting them out together. Use exaggerated facial expressions, gestures, and body movement. This helps bridge the mind-body connection and supports emotional expression through playful movement.

2. Exploring Anger Through the Volcano Metaphor

Anger is a common and necessary part of trauma processing. Using the metaphor of a volcano helps normalize the range and intensity of anger and offers children a creative outlet to explore their emotions.

Introduce the Volcano Metaphor

Explain how volcanoes have different states—dormant, smoking, and erupting—and how anger can feel the same way. Help your client identify what each state looks like for them:

Dormant: Anger is there, but not visible
Smoking: Early signs of irritation or frustration
Erupting: Full expression of rage or outburst

Two Creative Applications

Option 1: Draw the Volcano
Give the child a large sheet of paper and invite them to draw their own volcano—any size, shape, or color. Then ask them to write or draw all the things they’re angry about regarding their trauma directly onto or around the volcano.

Option 2: Make a Paper Mâché Volcano
This three-session project lets kids externalize and "erupt" their anger:

Build a volcano around a small plastic cup using cardboard and paper mâché.
Once dry, paint and decorate the volcano. Use markers to label the things they feel angry about.
Place the volcano in a shallow tray, add baking soda to the cup, and pour in vinegar to watch it erupt.

3. Challenging Negative Beliefs with Sticky Thoughts

Cognitive distortions—“sticky thoughts”—often form as children try to make sense of traumatic experiences. Left unaddressed, these beliefs can damage self-worth and relationships. The goal is to help children identify, externalize, and reframe these negative messages.

Start with a Story

Read The Hug Who Got Stuck by Andrew Newman. This story introduces a hug that becomes tangled in a web of negative thoughts. It’s a powerful, child-friendly metaphor for how distorted thinking can block connection and healing.

Sticky Webs Activity

Print or cut out several “sticky web” shapes from paper
Ask the child to identify one negative thought per web (e.g., “I’m bad,” “It was my fault”)
On the back of each web, write or draw “the truth” (e.g., “I’m safe now,” “It wasn’t my fault”)
Discuss how focusing on truth helps free the heart and restore connection with self and others

This activity not only supports cognitive restructuring but also fosters self-compassion and emotional repair.

Final Thoughts

These activities aren’t just creative—they’re backed by theory and grounded in trauma-informed principles. When used within a solid framework, they can be powerful tools for healing.

If you’d like to learn how to apply these techniques within a neuroscience and attachment-based model, check out my upcoming training: Healing Trauma Through Play Therapy: A Neuroscience and Attachment Approach on May 17th. We’ll explore how to build a strong framework, recognize trauma themes, and integrate parents into the process. Learn more and register at RHPlayTherapyTraining.com.

To watch the live stream episode and see the activities, click here.

Categories: : Neuroscience of attachment, Podcast, Trauma