1: Getting Started
Note: Play Therapy Across the Lifespan is created to be heard. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio so that you are able to appreciate the emotion and emphasis that cannot be captured by text alone. Transcripts may contain errors and differ slightly from the audio. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting it in print.
Resources and Links
https://www.a4pt.org/page/TrainingDirectory
Landreth, G. (2012). The Art of the Relationship(3rd ed.). Routledge.
Perryman, K. L., Moss, R., & Cochran, K. (2015). Child-centered expressive arts and play therapy: School groups for at-risk adolescent girls. International Journal of Play Therapy, 24(4), 205–220.
Prologue
Today I want to talk about the basics. We’re going to talk about training, toys, and setting up spaces. Have you thought about how you would use play therapy in the work you do? Maybe you work with kids and you’ve realized that traditional talk therapy isn’t going to work.
Training
You want to start by getting credible training in play therapy. It’s great if you can take a course in your graduate program because you get to learn an entire philosophical – maybe a theoretical – approach. An added bonus is that if you ever want to get your RPT (Registered Play Therapist) credential, graduate classes in play therapy count time and a half – usually 67.5 of the 150 hours needed per class! If you can’t do that, then try to do at least one multi-day conference or training. Again, you want to learn a consistent treatment modality, not a string of techniques to apply whimsically.
You might be surprised to learn that there are many different approaches to play therapy. Some are completely child-directed, and some are therapist-directed. Many are a hybrid of the two. Some are rooted in theory, like Adlerian, Jungian or Attachment, and some are intentionally eclectic. There are lots of great options for doing play therapy. And, while we all have our favorite approaches, the truth is that we need variety because people are not all the same.
A third option for training is to attend a workshop or training. You might be able to find one near you at A4pt.org. These are good ways to learn more about something specific, but you may not get that big-picture approach that you need. Still, it’s a great way to meet others in your area who are doing play therapy, too.
Toys
Garry Landreth, in The Art of the Relationship, outlines four types of toys. You don’t need a lot of toys – in fact, I teach students to create a mobile play therapy kit that can easily be portable – but if you have toys in each one of the four categories, your clients will have the tools to do the work they need to do. The four categories are these: Real Life, Aggressive Release, Nurturing, and Creative. Examples of Real Life toys include dollhouses, money, cars, cleaning supplies, and other things that a person would use in real life. Aggressive Release toys are things like weapons, soldiers, and scary animals. Nurturing toys include baby supplies, parent/child toy pairs, and soft blankets. Creative toys could be things like art supplies, play dough, and musical instruments.
Setting Up Your Space
This is the fun part. You want to create a space that is inviting and comfortable but able to handle some rough playing. This means you want durable furniture that is safe and easy to clean up. Avoid carpet if you can, because it’s harder to clean up spills. Get some shelving that helps you keep the toys organized by category so it’s consistent every time for the client. Try not to have so much stuff or so many colors that it is overstimulating. If you meet with parents, consider having a different office for that, but if you need to include it, make that a different zone.
Within those guidelines, you have a lot of liberty. Use colors and patterns that you like, because you’ll spend a lot of time in this space. I’d encourage you to spend some time dreaming about the kind of ideal playroom you’d like if money were no object. Let your creative juices flow…
Using the Basics with Adolescents and Adults
Play therapy is wonderful with kids. I can’t imagine doing therapy work without using play when I work with younger kids, but one of the surprising things for me was how effective it is with adolescents and adults. I got to places I couldn’t get to with adolescent males by adding art. I naturally incorporated it with adults, too, through this play therapy lens, and suddenly, the work got deeper and faster, and the changes were bigger. And really, that’s why I got into this profession. I want to help people, but not with Band-Aids. I want to do therapeutic work that has long-lasting results.
So, I use play therapy with adults, too. If you want to incorporate this with older clients, first get training in how to use it with kids. You want to learn a systematic approach to using play therapy. The application looks different with adults, but the basic “how-to” is similar.
With adults, though, you won’t use typical toys as your tools. That would be too juvenile. Instead, expand the creative category of toys and watch how adults use them to do the same things: deal with real life, express strong emotion, and nurture themselves. Over the upcoming podcasts, we’ll talk about the principles that help us adapt this for older clients. Make sure you subscribe so you won’t miss out.
Research Summary
Today I’m going to talk about a study from the International Journal of Play Therapy that used expressive arts and child-centered play therapy techniques in group therapy with at-risk adolescent females. The girls in this study were referred to the school counselor for a variety of reasons, including disciplinary school referrals and difficult home situations.
The goals for the group were that participants would develop appropriate social skills, gain an awareness of behaviors causing interpersonal problems with one another and family, and gain healthy coping skills and methods for dealing with feelings.
The first half-hour of each group was used as a time for the participants to share the high and low points of their weeks and to process any homework assigned the previous week as a part of the expressive arts group. The other hour was spent participating in the expressive arts activity for that week. Activities included two Floratherapy activities with fresh flowers, mandalas, clay dream pots, and “Weaving Your Life.”
A few important themes emerged from this study.
The first is that there were initial feelings of insecurity, which is common in the beginning of group therapy, as well as expressive arts, simply because the modality is usually unfamiliar.
The second is that there was an exploration of characteristics of Self and families; Family of Origin work was done through expressive mediums.
The girls experienced increased expression of feelings, which is especially important in working with teenagers because they often have difficulty expressing themselves verbally. Working through art and play appeared to reduce the anxiety about talking about themselves.
The girls also experienced feelings of accomplishment and pride, thus increasing feelings of self-worth. They experienced stress relief, increased self-awareness, increased group cohesion, and an awareness of behavioral changes outside of the group.
The themes that emerged from this study supported prior research findings on the benefits of using expressive arts/play therapy activities in group therapy. The results also reinforce the idea that adolescents often turn to arts-based methods of coping as a natural means of expression.
To close us out, this study supports the idea that play therapy and expressive arts can provide a myriad of social, emotional, and behavioral benefits for adolescents.
Perryman, K. L., Moss, R., & Cochran, K. (2015). Child-centered expressive arts and play therapy: School groups for at-risk adolescent girls. International Journal of Play Therapy, 24(4), 205–220.
Credits
That wraps up today’s show.
Try this today: go to A4Pt.org and look for a training near you. Also, go have some fun creating your ideal playroom at a site like Roomstyler.com. If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe. Then you won’t miss a single episode. This podcast is made possible through the Lipscomb University Center for Play Therapy and Expressive Arts.
If you have comments or questions, let us know at playtherapypodcast@gmail.com. I want to thank grad student Rachel Sellers. Also, special thanks to our audio engineer Sheldon Clark who happens to be a graduate from our program with the play therapy specialization. And to take us out, we want to continue a song written by another one of our play therapy students, Sara Beth Go. It’s called “Firefly” and if you like it, you can find both Sara Beth’s and Sheldon’s original songs in the show notes along or at playtherapypodcast.org with links to the research and resources we talked about. I’m your host, Dr. Denis’ Thomas saying thank you for caring about your clients: kids, adolescents, and adults. Now, go play, create, and heal.
