'A colt that does not play is not a horse.'
According to the Play Therapy Association, play therapy is the practice of 'trained play therapists to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial problems and achieve optimal growth and development. 'personal approach in which they benefit from the therapeutic power of the game'. The definition of play therapy is also the systematic use of an institutional model in a personalized process by play therapists using the therapeutic power of play. This definition also indicates that play therapy is a therapeutic practice that is firmly based on theoretical models, and that they strive to accept and use it. The power of play helps clients overcome their psychosocial strengths and achieve positive development. In fact, it is emphasized that play is important only for the child. On the contrary, it is possible to find many current articles that emphasize the importance of play therapy in gediatric use. However, in this project, children between the ages of 3-12 will be discussed. Here, the main theories of play therapy will be explained. These main theories are: psychodynamic models, humanistic models, systemic models and developing models.
First of all, it is important to mention the historical power of play therapy. Signume Freud was the first person to introduce the idea of play into the psychotherapy process (Freud, 1909). She demonstrated this with the case of Little Hans. Freud explained that play serves three main functions. He refers to it as increasing the free expression of taboo impulses, realizing desires, and overcoming traumatic experiences. This will be explained in detail in the psychoanalytical method play therapy section. Nevertheless, Freun's 1909 case of Little Hans is an important masterpiece of play therapy. Freud is followed by Melanie Klein and Anna Freud. In 1955, Melani Klein mentions that the child creates a control power in real life through miniature toys. With this in mind, Lowenfeld created the World Technique. This technique states that children can create their own worlds with sand in a sand tray (Lowenfeld, 1939). Then, in the following years, Anna Freud (1946) contributed to the child perspective for psychoanalysis. r has provided. He pointed out that children's thoughts, feelings and desires will be better about the game. Then, in 1982, the Play Therapy Association was established in the United States.
Psychoanalytic Approaches in Play Therapy
Early psychoanalysts were not like lying on the couch and doing free association, which is used in adults. The game is similarly used as an exploration of the unconscious, but this time it is interpreted as a rebellion against passivity and an active choice (Freud, 1931). He uses play as a useful tool in treating dreams, fantasy, that is, children who exhibit certain difficulties that are considered neurotic. The aims of early psychoanalysts in play therapy were to help children relax and to bring the subconscious into consciousness by using physically dangerous and conflicting materials. By providing an environment with toys and using these toys, the child's ego power is allowed to relax. He states that toys are actually used to reduce anxiety in a symbolic and disguised form, just like in dreams. He also mentions that children's ability to express their desires, fears and needs naturally reduces anxiety. On the other hand, Waelder stated in 1931 that play therapy with a psychoanalytical approach accompanies the development of a sense of superiority, enables the satisfaction of desires, the child's emotions change from passive to active, and is a tool to temporarily escape from the demands of the superego. Melani Klain, on the other hand, mentioned in 1932 that children, like adults, developed transference neurosis with their analysts and that they easily revealed the roots of their conflicts through games. Just as adults describe themselves through words, children also express themselves through play. That's why, in child analysis, fantasies and emotions can be expressed through play. On the other hand, Anna Freud explains that M. Klein's play is not words like in adulthood, and that play alone does not have a free association model like in adulthood. A. Freud deals with the real object, that is, the parents. Since their relationship with their partner is simultaneous with the treatment, they cannot convey their feelings to the therapist. However, M. Klein believed in the transfer power of the game. Moreover, A.Freud also adds that the analyst cannot be neutral towards the sick child. That is why transference and countertransference do not occur together with play. In addition, he adds that ego strength can be improved by understanding internal conflicts through play. Modern psychoanalysts have carried this idea forward. D.W. Winnicott, according to old analysts, says that play looks neither at the child's internal problems nor at the principle of external reality; play looks at both internal problems and external reality, therefore it is a transitional phenomenon for play. Modern psychoanalysts see play as a way to reach the child. The message "I am with you in the game" is given to the child in order to understand and listen to you. Because in this way, the inner process he is going through becomes real when someone else listens to it and recognizes it. In this process, the child sees, explains and recognizes his inner process. Therefore, they described play therapy as a complex process, both verbal and non-verbal. They call this naming their feelings. It is important to distinguish between talking about an emotion and acting on it, where one emotion is separate from the other. In fact, it is emphasized that it is important to distinguish one character from another. In this way, they show the process as understanding, integrating and accepting what is happening in it. In addition, language develops late in some children and early in others. The place of language in psychoanalysis is neither very important nor unimportant. Because the games of a child who uses speech and language well can be better observed and understood. However, the therapist should be more careful with the child who does not use language well enough and should understand the meaning of the games better. Psychoanalyst play therapists show toys as an expression of the internal process. That is, signs and symbols are the product of an internal process.
The essential technique in psychoanalysis is the evaluation of the individual's unconscious process through the free association method. Play is the free association of children. The therapist should use the game while dealing with the child, watch the game with the child's eyes and listen with the child's ear. The game played without intervention makes the child feel real.
Jungian Analytical Play Therapy
Jung created more theories about the second half of adulthood in the 1913s, but while describing adulthood, he explains that the bonds with the caregiver in the first years of life are important in adult life. He made many references to childhood because it affects interpersonal relationships and a person's relationship pattern. Therefore, in this article, we will focus on the issues he talks about about the child, not the adult part. Jung says that dreams have a very important place in daily life. It emphasizes the importance of children's fairy-tale or realistic dreams being played out in games and the child using their dreams by creating symbols with toys. Because, according to him, it plays an important role in the therapy of adults who remember their childhood dreams, because he says that the psychological content underlying these dreams from childhood is related to the pathology of the parents. Therefore, it has coined an archetypal term. Jung explains archetypes as historical roles. It talks about the roles created by the collective subconscious, that is, the roles that each person inherits from their ancestors. Based on this, introjection and identification are two important concepts in Jungian Analytical Play Therapy (JAOT). Accordingly, introjection is explained as the internalization of the other's beliefs, and identification as a strong attachment to the other's values and feelings. In this therapy room, children should be provided with an emotionally safe and inclusive environment, so that personal development, that is, individuation, will occur spontaneously. This is where psychopathology begins in the child's world, with the absence of a safe and inclusive parent in the therapy room. In the bad parent, feelings of not being good enough and inferiority arise. Some techniques are used to reveal pathology in the child and ensure spontaneous recovery. Jungian sand therapy, create your mandala, fairy tales in the sand, serial drawings are Jungian techniques. In particular, asking for a dream to be transferred to white paper or sand provides the opportunity to spontaneously overcome challenging emotions and thoughts. Therapy plan in three steps using these techniques creates the moment. The first is to counsel the child once a week for 50 minutes in an emotionally and physically safe environment. The second is to provide family play therapy sessions to caregivers approximately every two weeks. And the third stage is the task of the therapist, which is to meet and exchange information with a multidisciplinary team of school- and community-based professionals using a holistic approach.
Adlerian Play Therapy
Adler is the theorist of Individual Psychology and combines the basic principles of play therapy with some basic therapeutic interventions. The most important step is to establish an egalitarian relationship for the therapist and the child. Once you have established this relationship, it is important to investigate the child. In other words, it is necessary to understand their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, relationships, attitudes, and perceptions of others and the world. The parent's attitude towards the child is another issue that needs to be investigated. At this point, if a problem is seen in the family's feelings, thoughts, behavior and attitudes for the child, a treatment plan should be created here. The same applies to the teacher. Although treatment needs are different for each child, it is about gaining insight into internal and interpersonal dynamics. This insight then helps him learn and practice interpersonal skills. On the other hand, it allows parents and teachers to develop a positive perspective about their children. It offers a 4-step play therapy. The first stage, as mentioned above, is for the therapist and the child to build an egalitarian relationship. The second stage is to investigate the child's life skills, the third is to help him/her gain insight into his/her lifestyle, and the last is explained as redirection-re-education. Schaefer (1993) and Schaefer Drewer (2009) have prepared lists about the therapeutic power of play. In this list, self-expression, reaching the unconscious, direct and indirect teaching, emotional release, stress inoculation, overcoming fears and conditioning against negative affect, positive affect, competence and self-control, sublimation, attachment development, building a solidarity relationship, improving the relationship. , empathy, power control, self-perception, creative problem-solving skills.
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