Play therapy at Minwaashin Lodge lets indigenous children act out traumas in order to heal

In Toni King's play therapy room at Minwaashin Lodge, anything goes.

The big shelf holds the figurines for the children to choose from dragons and dinosaurs, fighters, castles, babies, grandparents, nurses anything they might encounter or imagine.

There are bakers and cameramen, police cars and fire trucks. Handcuffs. Wine bottles. Social workers. Knives.

The children choose, and theytake the figurinesto the sand box.

What happens there can be called play, but it's really a lot more.

Release

As long as they're using aninanimateobject, the children areallowed to act out and show King whatever they need to.

"They are telling you a story. It's not just random play. They are telling you about their experiences, about their life, about what they're facing each day," King says.

In a 50- to 60-minute session, there might be five minutes that achildreally gets down to telling their own story. King pays close attention, watching for the change in them.

Sometimes a child's facewill turnred. Other timesthey might stomp their feet. Sometimes they hit a puppet, or bury them.

And sometimes, all a childcan bring him or herselfto do is lay down in the sand tray clutching a doll, covered in a blanket, for an hour.

"We just sit, however it needs to be," King says. "It's very, very powerful."

'You can just feel it in the room'

"The children that come in here, they've been exposed to or they've witnessed a violence within the home," King says. "It can stop you for a moment, when you see what children have experienced.

"It's a way of letting them really just release it, and I've watched them ... you can just feel it in the room ... And then they're done, and it's, 'what can I do now, Toni?' And they're just ready to go on."

We're not meant to have children, eightyears old,12years old,taking their own lives. It can't be like this. It's got to stop.- Toni King

Sometimes what the children show hershakes King to her core, and she has to take a few moments to process itherself when the children leave.

King says she was adopted by a non-indigenousfamily, and that while she didn't experience domestic violence, she did experience a lot of racism.

"I suffered abuse in that home, andmyself turned to alcohol to try and deal with the pain."

It was a sand tray play therapy training program that saved her, she says.

• Listen to more of theOttawa Morninginterview with King here.

King funded to work part-time

Her play therapy program, called Children Who Witness,has been running in Ottawa since Julyafter itreceivedfunding from the United Way. The money allows King to work part-timeand she says there's already a waiting list.

There's a play room at Minwaashin Lodgeand anotherat a shelter.

The children King sees are often upset, she says, a product of"the historical trauma that our people have had and are continuing to deal with."

When it's over, the children are given time to calm down. Sometimes she performs a smudging ceremony onthem and the room. Theyalso readbooks about anger and other feelings, how to let them move without hurting people or themselves.

'It can't be like this. It's got to stop'

"It is sad. It's tragic. It's hard to understand how we are at a point in this society where this continues to go on, where there aren't enough programs like this to help children. Andthen we wonder why children are having difficulties in school, why they're fighting, why there are bullies," King says.

She's hoping she can eventually be funded to work full time, and that more programs like it get funding.

"Sadly, there is such a need. We need more programs like this, we need more funding, we need to help our childrenbecause they're in pain. ... There just needs to be more help," she says.

"We know, with the history we've had theresidential schools, the '60s scoop, which is whatI'm from there's been such a disconnect for our people, and we need to all work hard, because we just can't let ourselves continue like this. It's too sad. We have a culture so rich, we have our medicines, and it's important that weembrace all that we have and get back to those teachings where children are gifts.We are gifts to one another.

"We're not meant to abuse one another. We're not meant to put bruises and cuts on one another. We're not meant to have children, eightyears old,12years old,taking their own lives. It can't be like this. It's got to stop."