Psychotherapy With Children

"Allen established the general principle that the play a child chooses usually has something to do with what concerns them most in life. He also laid out some procedures, such as setting a regular time and establishing the child’s confidence in the confidentiality of the therapeutic relationship. This is a very practical book that will tell you how to conduct play therapy with children – for instance, what you’d need in a room. Children tend not to be as verbal as you’d like. So you give them a chance to play with props or draw on a pad. Allen and Virginia Axline, author of my next book choice, were both influential in my work. I got my degree at Columbia, where Axline had her clinical play lab. We learned to help children play, act and draw about their concerns and fears and how to interpret what the children would do and say. We used all sorts of modalities – dolls, puppets and all sorts of props – to help children express their feelings and help suggest alternative ways of handling them. For instance, I found that winning and losing at games such as checkers [draughts] could be a powerful therapy for children. I remember one particularly aggressive child overturned the board the first time he lost but after playing many games he learned to see that losing wasn’t the end of the world. I also learned from Allen and Axline that parents are a very important part of the therapeutic process. If you are working with a child in play therapy you absolutely have to see the parent. I carried that into my own play therapy practice. After seeing the child, I’d see the parent to re-enforce what they were doing right or guide them toward different behaviour. I also learned from Axline to connect with schools. That’s where a child spends a good deal of his or her time. So as part of my practice I’d go to the school to observe the interaction between the child and the peer group and the child and the teachers. Sometimes if the chemistry is not good, it can be difficult for the child. So I learned from Axline to offer myself to teachers as a collaborator in trying to do the best by the child. Visiting the schools, meeting with the parents, it all takes a lot of time. Child therapists work very hard. That’s why there aren’t many of them."