The idea of play therapy

The humor of operate therapyWe are never more(prenominal) fully a conk, more completely ourselves or more recentlyly pore in anything than when we are rounding. -Charles SchaeferPlay is the primary way that nipperren learn close the humanness, commiserate how different things work, convey their thoughts and feelings, develop their physical skills, develop their mental skills, and develop effective social skills and bonds. As infantilesterren grow, their employ of wrangle becomes more sophisticated, but throughout childhood, they usually dribble much more of themselves in their tamper. We target understand children kick downstairs if we understand their put-on. Rather than engaging in vocal communication, we often learn more nearly their thoughts, feelings, motivations, and struggles by watching children bend. Children more effectively communicate their thoughts and feelings through walkaway than they do through verbal communication. As the child meets, the t herapist begins to recognize themes and patterns or ways of using the materials that are eventful to the child. all over time, the clinician helps the child begin to make meaning out of the bend.The Association for Play Therapy (APT) defines tamper therapy as the doctrinal use of a theoretical model to establish an inter soulfulnessal process wherein trained play therapists use the remedial powers of play to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth and training (www.a4pt.org). Although the idea of play therapy was introduced over 80 years ago, this therapeutic approach has only begun to experience major(ip) growth and development within the last 20 years and is still considered to be relatively tender in modern therapy practices. Within the past 10 years, play therapy has become more recognized as an effective intervention to reduce challenging behaviors associated with social, emotional, behavioral, and learning difficulties in with child(p)s, children and adolescents. While researching this approach, I found it progressively difficult to dominate in frameation relative to the proven clinical practice of play therapy as roughly of the information pertaining to play therapy still focuses widely on reliability and studies to prove that it is even an effective practice.Because play is so familiar to children, it is a zone of comfort that permits counselors to approach clients in a nonthreatening environment. When children play, they feel safe. They dont serve to plain talking and listening to an adult conversation. Play Therapists use play to help children express feelings about many regainings. Children can use play to address feelings about loss and divorce. Children who have been victims of abuse or have experienced a trauma can also benefit. Even a child who is having bother with peer relations or conduct in school can benefit from play. Children often express their feelings behaviorally and this c an be misdiagnosed as ADD/ADHD resulting in these children being medicated unnecessarily. Effects of trauma, loss, and divorce can mimic the symptoms of ADD/ADHD. Instead of using medication as the first option of treatment, children and their therapists can go for play therapy to work on those feelings. The main goal of play therapy is to eliminate behavioral and emotional difficulties that suppress a child to function normally, especially in regards to improved communication and understanding between the child and his parents, family, and peers. By using play therapy techniques, the therapist can allow a child or adult to become more aware of their emotions and eliminate any negative behavior that may be a direct result of their emotional and behavioral difficulties. Less obvious goals of play therapy include improved verbal expression, ability for self-observation, improved impulse control, more adaptive ways of coping with anxiety and frustration, and improved faculty to trus t and to relate to others. Although play therapy has been proven to be effective for children with various kinds of disorders, it is non as accommodative for certain types disorders or illnesses, such as children with the most(prenominal) severe degree of autism and schizophrenia (Landreth, 2002). These two types of children live so exclusively in their own world that they cut off interaction with the outside world completely. Because they lack the ability and/or willingness to interact with people and objects, I believe that play therapy might not be the best therapeutic approach for these children.Play Therapy involves the use of role playing, toys, blocks, dollys, puppets, and games to help the child recognize, identify, and convey feelings and to communicate what has happened to them and how they feel about these events in their lives. Often, a child will allow a doll or puppet to say things that the child does not feel they are free to tell to anyone. arch(prenominal) the rapists also use drawing and art work to allow feelings to flow and become expressed. The therapist observes how the child uses play materials and identifies themes or patterns to understand the childs problems. Play therapy is particularly effective with children who cannot, or do not compulsion to talk about their problems. Through a combination of talk and play the child has an opportunity to better understand and manage their conflicts, feelings, and behavior. Sand play therapy is one form of play therapy which allows greater exploration of deep emotional issues. Sand play therapy is suitable for children and adults and allows them to reach a deeper insight and reconciliation of a prescribe of issues in their lives such as internal conflicts that manifest as anxiety and depression, as well as penetrating the depths of personality to experience the self directly. Through a safe and supportive process, clients place toy figurines in a small sand box to express confusing feeling s and inner experiences. This creates a optic representation of the unconscious and reveals concerns that are inaccessible any other way. As materials contained in the unconscious out visually and symbolically, it is integrated into a persons sense of self and can be activated to elicit behavioral change. Sand play therapy is an expressive and creative way of working which does not rely on traditionalistic talk therapy.Two major approaches of play therapy are Non-guiding (Child-Centered) play therapy and Directive (Cognitive Behavioral Model) play therapy. A skilled practitioner will adopt a mix of both approaches according to each respective(prenominal) child and their circumstances. In non-directive play therapy, the therapist remains supportive, but non-intrusive, and obligation and direction are odd to the child, which emphasizes empowering the client, self-awareness, decision-making, and acceptance of the clients self. In directive play therapy, the therapist aquires resp onsibility for guidance and interpretation of the therapy by victorious an active role in the play and structuring the session for assessment, diagnostic, and treatment purposes. One key concern of non-directive techniques is that young children may not necessarily have the cognitive skills and emotional capacity to repair and master traumatic experiences on their own. Upon researching the information that I found on the different ways to apply play therapy to therapeutic sessions, I personally found directive play therapy to be the most efficient. I like the idea of having more control over sessions and getting the information I need to successfully identify problems and issues for the child. though both practices use similar ways of play and creative expression for the child, in my opinion directive therapy seems to be the best approach for my own personal counseling style.One issue that comes up most often in regards to the boundaries of play therapy is hugging and/or physical c ontact. In any therapeutic relationship, it is important for the client to realize that the therapist cares. Therapists accomplish this in traditional talk therapy by attentive listening, reflecting, and empathy with fine to no touch involved. This can be quite different when working with children in a play setting. Children can be naturally very impulsive, and may hug the therapist in response to a positive or negative feeling. It is important for the therapist to be aware that hugging and touch are used in many different types of relationships and have a variety of meaning. An ethical response to this issue is to abstain from hugging all clients, especially child clients (McGuire McGuire, 2001). On the other hand, if a therapist is hugged by a child, remaining stiff may send a negative message to the client (Landreth, 1999). Although I found the literature on ethical issues in play therapy to be lacking, the information I did see was illuminating. It certainly caused me to thin k more in-depth about the many ethical situations that are specific to working with children and to play therapy. This means being aware of potential ethical issues before they arise and planning in acquire on how I would react to those situations. I liked the direction that the literature appears to be heading, which is providing play therapists with more effective and universal guidelines for ethical problem solving.The practice of play therapy requires extensive specialized education, training, and experience. A play therapist is a licensed (or certified) mental health professional who has earned a Masters or Doctorate degree in a mental health field with considerable general clinical experience and supervision (www.a4pt.org). Unfortunately, according Dr. Garry Landreth, who is one of the major key contributors to the field of play therapy, many therapists practicing play therapy do not have the specialized training needed with less than half of the therapists currently practici ng play therapy having taken a graduate course in the field. Children are a special client population, and simply having a degree in counseling or another similar field does not exchange a person to provide therapy for them (Corey, Corey, Callanan, 2007).When Dr. Landreth (2001) outlined what play therapy can do for children he also told us what areas of development are often a struggle for children and adults alike. Children start their lives with an amazing skill to play that off the beaten track(predicate) too often gets lost in the confusion of the adult world. Many adults still cannot claim responsibility for their actions or to accept themselves for who they are as people. Play, whether with games, puppets, drums, clay, sports, motion, drawing, drama, dolls, sand, or whatever else is available, invites a cascade of positive effects. thither are endless possibilities for the use of play therapy with adults (Schaefer, 2003). Play therapy for adults can also allow the bonding with others to form sound relationships for people who may have experience only with serious dysfunctional interactions. When adults enter into play therapy, they are able to gain access to their inner child. Very often, emotional repression and unhealthy feelings are organize in childhood and adults learn to ignore surface exhibition of these emotional traumas. However, with adult play therapy the person has the space to realize and act out those feelings and they can reach a resolution and closure, allowing them to become happier, healthier people.In the limited amount of research that I found on the topic of play therapy, it seems as though there is a lack of consistency among the definitions and its implementation. Some articles and texts clearly defined play therapy others seemed to enlace a traditional definition to fit their purpose. I honestly do not know if there truly is a pure form or definition of play therapy. I did however, through my research, find that the variou s techniques of play therapy used seemed to be quite effective at portion children to deal with a wide array of issues.In conclusion, I believe that play therapy is a fun, innovative, valid, and effective means of helping clients to express feelings that they have unconsciously repressed or avoided. It can be a very healthy outlet and can be useful at times when traditional talk therapy simply doesnt work. Dr. Landreth (2002) states that play is a childs language and toys are his/her words.