Sean Gittins — Berlin
Where play, care and creativity meet.
Play therapy, supervision and creative relational work based between Berlin and the UK.
For parents
Play Therapy andParent Support in Berlin.
English-speaking support and counselling for children and adolescents along with the adults around them. For families navigating anxiety, school stress, confidence, friendships, regulation and transition.
Children rarely sit down and tell you exactly what’s wrong, but through play they often show it — in the stories they create, the roles they take on, what they avoid, and what keeps returning. Play therapy helps children work through emotional, social, and behavioural challenges, supporting them to feel more secure, confident, and able to cope at home, in school, and in relationships.
What it can help with
Families come for many reasons. A few of the most common —
- Anxiety, worry and overwhelm
- Difficulty at school — friendships, focus, refusal
- Confidence and self-esteem
- Emotional regulation and big feelings
- Attachment, separation and bonding
- Family transitions — moves, separation, new siblings, bereavement
- Adjustment for international and bilingual families
- Behaviour that feels stuck or confusing at home
If you're unsure whether what you're seeing at home is "enough" to bring — please get in touch anyway. A first conversation costs nothing and often clarifies a great deal.
How it works
A simple, unhurried process.
Four stages — and parents stay close to the work throughout.
- 01
Initial Parent Meeting
We begin with a conversation — usually just the parents. You tell me what's been happening at home and at school, what you've already tried, and what you're hoping for. I explain how I work, answer your questions, and we decide together whether play therapy and counselling feels like the right next step.
- 02
First meetings with your child
The first two or three sessions are gentle and unhurried. Your child gets to know the room, the different ways we work together through play, art and story, and me. There's no pressure to talk about anything in particular. I'm watching, listening and beginning to understand how they experience the world and express themselves within it.
- 03
Regular sessions
We then settle into a regular rhythm — usually one session a week, at the same time, for an agreed period. Children use sand, figures, art, story and movement to work through what they're carrying. The consistency itself is part of the work.
- 04
Parent reviews
Every eight to twelve weeks we meet again as parents to look at how things are going — at home, at school, in the room. You are not on the outside of this work. Your noticing, your questions and your relationship with your child are central to it.
Sessions are in English. I work with many international and bilingual families living in Berlin.
About
A therapist who came to this work through play.
I am a Play Therapist, Counsellor and Supervisor based in Berlin. I trained through Play Therapy UK, in a humanistic, client-centred tradition with a gestalt influence. Before that — and still now — I worked in teaching, drama, music and performance.
I work with many families who are living between languages and cultures — children at international schools, families on assignment, bilingual households, recent arrivals to Berlin. For many families, the relief of being able to do this work in English — for both children and parents — can be significant.
Originally from Wales, I trained as a Play Therapist and Child Counsellor in the UK. I've spent much of my working life across the UK and Europe, and I'm used to holding the particular textures of family life lived in more than one place.
More about my background →Alongside the therapy work
Supervision, performance and teaching.
Different rooms, same craft — attention, play and relationship.
Supervision
Regular reflective sessions for play therapists, counsellors, clowns, performers and teachers — thinking through specific clients, audiences and rooms.
Individual and small-group, in person in Berlin or online.
Healthcare Clowning
Ongoing work in paediatric wards, care homes and refugee centres as a clown, actor and musician. Workshops for performers and care staff.
Ward visits, stage runs, festivals, and workshops in arts and care settings.
Teaching & Alexander Technique
Hands-on Alexander lessons for actors, musicians, therapists and people working with strain. Teaching in drama schools and training programmes.
One-to-one lessons and group workshops.
Fragments
From the rooms I work in
A few photographs, taken between things.
Writing
Notes from the therapy room, the ward and the rehearsal floor
The Serious Work of Play
Play is often dismissed as the opposite of work. In therapeutic and creative settings, it may be the most precise tool we have.
Clowning in Care Settings
Notes from years of work on paediatric wards: what the red nose actually does, and what it asks of us in return.
What Supervision Can Hold
Reflective practice is not problem-solving. It is the careful making of space in which something true can be said.
Embodiment, Habit and Attention
What the Alexander Technique offers anyone whose work asks them to be present — on stage, in the consulting room, in the classroom.
Get in touch
A first conversation is the place to begin.
- Play therapy and counselling for a child or young person in Berlin
- Parent consultation about something you're noticing at home
- Supervision for your own therapy, teaching or performance practice
- Hospital clowning, performance or workshop bookings
- Teaching for individuals and groups