Description
Hide and seek is one of the most universal childhood games, yet within the playroom it carries profound symbolic and relational meaning. Beyond its simplicity, the game reflects fundamental human experiences of connection and separation, presence and absence, safety and uncertainty. Within therapeutic work, hide and seek can offer children a structured and playful way to explore attachment needs, emotional regulation, and the delicate balance between being seen and being hidden.
This Continuing Professional Development (CPD) webinar invites practitioners to explore the developmental, relational, and attachment-based significance of hide and seek within play therapy. Participants will consider how the dynamics of hiding and seeking can mirror early relational experiences, including themes of availability, attunement, abandonment, and reunion. The session will explore how this familiar game can evoke powerful emotional states in both children and therapists, often touching on experiences of longing, excitement, anxiety, and repair.
The training will also provide space for reflective exploration of therapists’ own childhood experiences of hide and seek, considering how personal histories may shape emotional responses within the therapeutic setting. Participants will be encouraged to think about how cultural, historical, and familial contexts influence the way this game is played and understood, and what variations in play might reveal about parenting styles, relational expectations, and beliefs about autonomy and protection. Through discussion and reflection, practitioners will deepen their understanding of how this simple game can become a rich therapeutic encounter.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this webinar participants will be able to:
Understand the developmental, relational, and attachment-based meanings of hide and seek within the therapeutic space.
Explore how hide and seek play can reflect themes of connection, separation, presence, absence, and repair.
Reflect on personal childhood experiences of hide and seek and consider how these may influence therapeutic presence and emotional responses.
Recognise the cultural and historical significance of hide and seek and how it is shaped by broader social and parenting norms.
Understand how variations in the game may reflect different attachment styles, relational needs, and emotional experiences.
Develop confidence in recognising and working with the symbolic meaning of hide and seek in play therapy.
Strengthen reflective practice when engaging in emotionally evocative relational play.
Consider how hide and seek can support emotional regulation, safety, and therapeutic connection.
Why Attend?
Hide and seek is often seen as a simple childhood game, yet within therapeutic contexts it can open up profound exploration of attachment, trust, and emotional safety. It provides children with a way to safely rehearse separation and reunion, while also revealing important aspects of their relational world.
This webinar offers a reflective and clinically grounded space to deepen understanding of this familiar game, supporting practitioners to recognise its therapeutic richness and respond with greater attunement, curiosity, and confidence.
