PLAY THERAPY

It is well accepted that free association, as used in psychoanalytic therapy or psychodynamic therapy is a valuable technique with adults. These provide an avenue into the depths of the mind for the investigation of unconscious material. In children, however, play is a more appropriate form of expression than talking. Play techniques involve introducing a child to an environment that has several options for the child to express his or herself through the manipulation of the toys and the environment. The child is allowed free choice while the therapist acts as an observer. The toys represent the common interest of life for children. The use the child makes of the play options reveals the child’s fantasies, and offers insight into his or her mental mechanisms, and gives clues regarding behavior and emotion. Sometimes, story telling is used effectively in play therapy.

In the child, play may be regarded as the expression of the unconscious. She or he may use the imaginary characters of play to express disturbed feelings. In some regard play is a projective technique that can describe the dynamics of relationships, attitudes, beliefs, thoughts and behaviors.

Drawing and painting are also effective play mediums through which the child may express conscious or unconscious dynamics. The play therapist uses the play of the child as the content and structures it in the direction of therapy goals.

Children are able to use play therapy to work through a variety of troubling issues. Research has shown play therapy to be effective in helping children resolve oppositional problems and conflict with authority, anxiety and separation or abandonment issues, child sexual abuse, conduct disorders, adjustment disorders, and attention and concentration problems.