REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE MILLENNIUM WORLD CONGRESS
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE MILLENNIUM WORLD CONGRESS ON CHILD AND PLAY THERAPY
A dhaoine uaisle
Is breá liom bheith anseo i bhur measc ag an ócáid speisialta seo, agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl díbh as an chuireadh agus as fáilte fíorchaoin.
I am delighted to join you this morning at the Millennium Congress on Child and Play Therapy. I would like to thank Dr. Mark Bergin and his colleagues for the kind invitation.
It is wonderful to see that this conference has attracted so many distinguished professionals from the field of child psychology and play therapy world-wide. This surely must be a forum where the knowledge and wisdom your discipline has already pocketed from past and present experience will encounter the imagination that has been fomenting and distilling and which is essential for its future.
You have come here in a spirit of humility and curiosity - humble enough to acknowledge that you do not know all there is to know and that there is much to learn from each other, generous enough to share what you do know with others, because you believe that in sharing that knowledge nothing is taken away from you but a huge new resource is added to what is available to all of us. You come here because you care about children, about their health, their happiness, their sanity, their hopes, their lived realities.
Our children are the future, we all care desperately about them and we want to give them the best possible start in life. There is nothing more marvellous than to see a child grow strong and well, his or her gifts encouraged to blossom and to develop into a fulfilled adulthood. Unfortunately there are many children whose gifts remain unpacked, whose life chances are stillborn because of any one of the calamities or mixtures of calamitous circumstances which can befall an unsuspecting and vulnerable child. Our adult world has a profound responsibility to find effective ways of reaching out to these children and helping shift the lost trajectories of their lives. At a time when health services are becoming the domain of increasingly sophisticated high-tech medical interventions for which we are deeply grateful, it is worth remembering that there are many interventions which can prove to be equally miraculous - the power of play, of laughter, a gentle touch, a word of praise.
You provide a huge resource of insight and distilled wisdom which we need to ransack in order to construct a coherent and multifaceted approach in the area of the mental health of children.
On beautiful summer days it is always a pleasure to see young children at play, in the parks, at the seaside or even in their own back gardens. The world of their imagination is their playground. Children love to play and the reality is that children need to play. Apart from developing their physical and mental skills, play helps them learn about the world and how to express their thoughts and feelings. Indeed, by watching children play we often learn more about their thoughts, feelings motivations and struggles than by talking with them! Play is the ‘language of childhood’, we adults need to re-learn that language if we are to help our children.
We each of us carry into the future the baggage of our childhood, the good and bad times, the pleasures and the pain. We take the lessons learned from our childhood and bring them with us into our adult lives. Sadly for some, those experiences are deeply traumatic. They impoverish their lives in so many ways especially when experienced in the home, a place which should be a crucible of care. In adulthood, we meet them, the walking wounded, often unable to cope with the expectations of society and so often wreaking havoc on their own lives, the lives of those they love and the lives of those who cross their paths. Every life lived in that lost world is a loss to the individual. Never to know yourself, or what you are capable of is a huge personal loss. It is also a loss to the family, to the community and to society for so often instead of adding to the huge national grid of human energy and genius, they drain it, their lives marooned on the edge of or in the middle of chaos.
Today, thankfully we understand the importance of giving children the tools to express themselves, to work their way through their problems and hopefully allowing them grow into happy and productive adults who can offer a great deal to society.
Play therapy unlocks the mystery of each individual child allowing them to explore the world about them and to find expression for their inner turmoil. Sometimes in play therapy a special connection is made between therapist and child – a moment of shared understanding and intimacy when you know you have reached the person inside. Whether it is through music, story telling play-acting or toys the therapist connects with the child providing a bridge of understanding which can be developed and the process of healing can begin.
This conference brings together Irish and international experts, providing a valuable opportunity for sharing knowledge and experience. We hope that in that sharing, you will find new ideas and new sources of illumination to help you in your work. We need you to help educate us as a society in our journey into the human person, his and her needs, this great frontier which is the work of this millennium.
I would like to extend a particular ‘Céad Míle Fáilte’ to all our overseas visitors – we hope that your visit to Ireland will be a most informative and enjoyable one.
Finally I would like to commend the sponsors of the Conference – Play Therapy International, the International Board of Examiners of Certified Child and Play Therapists, the Canadian Play Therapy Institute and Play Therapy Ireland. I know that it took a tremendous effort by many individuals and groups to organise this event. I wish you well in your deliberations.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.