Play Therapy
In Schools
2013 CCPA
Annual Conference
Presenter: Don Chafe
don_chafe@hotmail.com
Play Therapy
• Why Play?
• Why Therapy?
• Why work with children?
Why Play?
• Most children readily engage in play.
• Play is believed to be the natural
language of childhood.
• Children (and often adults) may lack
the verbal ability to describe inner
experience.
• Play taps “magical thinking” ability.
Why Therapy?
• Therapy is a corrective
experience.
• Therapy is about change.
Why work with children?
• Children are embedded in a social
context:
– Children in families
– Children in schools
– Children in communities
• Some schools of play therapy deal
with these various levels.
Why work with children?
• Children have internal psychological
processes.
• These processes can be explored and
altered in the therapeutic
relationship.
• This workshop will focus on
therapeutic relationships with
children.
Some “schools” of play
therapy
➲
Non-directive
Prescriptive
➲
Psychoanalytic
Family
➲
Sand play
Group
➲
Filial Therapy
Object relations
➲
Jungian
Phenomenological
➲
Cognitive-Behavioral
Fair Play
➲
Adlerian
Time Limited
➲
Theraplay
Dynamic
➲
Ecosystemic
 >>>>>>>>>>>>
Non-directive play therapy
➲
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Belief system:
Child driven
Child is having difficulties because he
/she does not feel accepted / respected
Cure is unconditional positive regard
Non-directive play therapy
➲
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➲
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Therapist behavior and therapeutic
techniques:
If you are using a technique you are not
doing non-directive therapy
Therapist concentrates on active
listening:
Tracking
Reflection of feeling
VERY limited questioning
Tracking

What do we reflect?

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
Play sequences
Child-toy interaction
Project child into play
Child's behavior
Tracking

How do we reflect?


Intensity of the therapist's
involvement can be varied from
light to intense
NOTE:

Reflection of feeling can be
similarly varied.
Practice
Practice non-directive techniques
Non-directive practice
Reflect
 Set limits
 THE END

Setting limits

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What limits do we set?
How do we let the child know the limits?
How do we enforce the limits?
Gestalt play therapy

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Based on the adult work of
Frederick Perls
Gestalt is an “experiential”
therapy
Gestalt Play Therapy

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Violet Oaklander (1978). Windows to
Our Children
Felicia Carroll (student of Oaklander)
Gestalt Theory can be taught
 Heady / esoteric ideas
Gestalt Therapy must be experienced
 Ideas meaningless without
experience
Gestalt Play Therapy
Belief system:

Therapist driven

I / thou relationship

Therapist encouraged the child to experience
all aspects of the self while being totally
present in the session

Children experience problems because they
lack contact with some aspect of the self or
the environment

Cure comes from having child establish contact
➲
Gestalt Play Therapy
➲
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
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Therapist behavior and therapeutic
techniques:
Experiencing
Sharing
Changing perspective
Identifying with elements
Amplifying
Using non-verbals
Owning emotions
Practice
Practice gestalt techniques
More info
Canadian Association for Child and Play
Therapy (CACPT)
www.cacpt.com
Play Therapy International
www.playtherapy.org