Home Within the Heart A Play Therapy Workshop to Strengthen Parent-Child Bonds and Family Resilience for Families Evacuated from War Zones

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to improve family resilience by enhancing open and secure communication within families, strengthening the parent-child bond, and fostering feelings of safety and stability. It focuses on parents and their children who have been evacuated from war zones, assessing how a short-term therapeutic workshop may improve emotional regulation, reflective functioning, parental self-efficacy, and child behavior. Participants in the study will either take part in a four-session play therapy workshop held once a week, led by professionals from clinical, educational, and developmental psychology. This workshop offers psycho-educational support on coping with stress through play therapy, specifically designed for parent-child pairs with children aged 3 to 6 years from war-affected regions. Observers will monitor the quality of parent-child interactions during sessions, focusing on emotion, responsiveness, encouragement, and instruction. Before and after the workshop, participants will complete questionnaires and clinical interviews to evaluate their mental functioning and relationship with their child. The study measures outcomes such as depression, anxiety, stress, parental reflective functioning, mental health, and child-parent relationship quality over a period of up to 20 weeks. The total study duration and follow-up assessments help researchers understand the workshops impact on family resilience and emotional well-being.

Home Within the Heart: a Playful Journey to Strengthen Family Resilience