Play Therapy Training Day
I attended a play therapy conference yesterday and while I don't know how I feel about some of it, it was so fascinating for me personally. (also apparently the only time I can manage blogging is when I'm not in classes actively, so here goes nothing)
Lately I've been in a constant state of managing my feelings. I'm navigating a particularly tricky life situation right now and am feeling anxiety over how to deal with it. Or I guess the reality is I am done managing it but I am navigating the fall-out from it, which is mainly just my feelings right now.
During the play therapy session we did mandalas and sand tray therapy. And it was SOOO relaxing for me. I felt like I had entered a new sphere, one in which my heart didn't feel as tight and sad.
Also I'm battling jet lag from study abroad and just a bit of stomach bug from the trip as well, so I'm sure that's not helping. But either way, the sand tray and the mandala making was so beautiful for me personally.
The conference involved learning about 4 types of play therapy, as well as play therapy in general. In general, they recommended having a room (preferably) with toys that feels like a warm cozy space in which to do play therapy. But also, you can make it work with a bag that has a bunch of toys if you are doing home-based work.
Our teachers (who happen to be my two wonderful supervisors) recommended us having a variety of toys for children to engage with in a variety of way, including:
-real life/family/nurturance (dolls, puppets, dollhouse with furniture)
-expressive/communication (ie phones, megaphone, binoculars)
-acting out/aggressive release (controversial) (ie guns, plastic knives, pillows for hitting, toy soldiers, dinosaurs, swords, play bats)
-mastery (ie nerf basketball, bean bag toss, legos, blocks, water play, hula hoop, ring toss)
-expression/play/fantasy/pretend (ie play food, medical kit, play money, art supplies, mirrors, cars, play-doh, etc)
Our teachers think that acting out toys are needed because this is REAL life and the kids will be exposed to it either way.
When you bring a child to the play room, tell them that this is a special room where they can play with anything they want in anyway. don't set limits. then the school of thought differs on clean-up - some say the child needs to clean up, some don't. one of our teachers told us how one of her clients (who was about 5, I think) would pull EVERYTHING out - every single toy in the room - thus very disorganized play. by three months into the work, he was able to regulate his play more.
when leaving, give 5 minute and 1 minute warnings and gently guide the child to leave. limit setting is important, though challenging.
the 4 types of therapy:
Child Centered Non Directive Play Therapy
-comment and narrate (gently) what the child is doing. "you have a purple crayon. look at that circle you're making with the crayon"
LIMITING QUESTIONS - very hard, very necessary. interferes in child's world.
-narration of play and tracking - objective is for the child to feel that you are present and understanding of their world.
-being a witness is powerful
-limit questions and let the child show you how they want to play
-if they draw you into their play utilize the stage whisper
-it's OK for child to contradict you
-garry landreth video and Eliana Gil are good examples
Art Therapy
-dyadic art therapy between parent and child can strengthen ties
-can be a source of release
-mandalas in art therapy: sacred circles
-if possible, have a variety of mediums available so people can fully express themselves
-offering a prompt can be helpful but if child feels inspired to create their own thing that's good too
-cool idea: have a child build or draw an aquarium that's safe for everyone who lives there. can do as a family, parents might be intrusive so encourage them to let the child lead.
(food, hiding spaces, as possibilities - is there food insecurity? does the child have a place to go when scared? what kinds of comfort and space do they look for?)
Theraplay
-originally developed to work with foster kids and their parents
-A LOT OF ACTION
-theraplay is registered and is the OPPOSITE of child centered play therapy
-very frenetic, almost. we watched a video.
-based on playing games and doing activities with the child that build into 4 different dimensions.
-treatment starts with an assessment called the Mershak and then the clinician decides based on this what the family needs to work on in terms of dimensions (below) and tailors the activities to that.
-it has 4 dimensions: structure, nurture, engagement, challenge
structure: involves structured games like red light green light and Simon says that encourage child to follow parent's lead.
engagement: engage the child while attuned. if a parent is depressed or using substances this is hard.
nurture: ability to meet child's needs for soothing and love and care and attention. parents may not have been nurtured in their past so they don't know how to nurture.
challenge: capacity to support and encourage the child's efforts to achieve, children need to feel mastery
Theraplay involves rebalancing family structure (Minuchin - the theory behind this - Family Structural Therapy) and building child's resilience too.
Sand Tray Therapy
-very jungian in its analysis, but less so in the actual process
-involves giving children (or adults!) the blank canvas of a sandbox (personal-sized) in a rectangular or octagonal shape. the inside of the box is often painted blue, like the sky or the sea.
-therapist provides a lot of miniature items that the person can make a scene out of.
-important not to have too many "minis" because it means that the kid/person could be overwhelmed.
-building scenes/using sand for art is an ancient (and modern) practice. used by Tibbetan monks.
-for me, because I know the theory and analysis behind it, I knew I was going to overanalyze what I was doing so I just went with it. I made the scene to fit how I was feeling and was like YEAH this is going to have a ton of analysis potential.
Overall I think I see myself resonating with the Child Centered (because I use it) and the sand tray and art therapy pieces from the environmental/holistic side of my work. Theraplay seems really specialized and freaked a lot of us out - seeing the video made us think that there was a lot of force involved. But I like being exposed to new things and expanding my worldview, so it was valuable to learn about Theraplay too.
Lately I've been in a constant state of managing my feelings. I'm navigating a particularly tricky life situation right now and am feeling anxiety over how to deal with it. Or I guess the reality is I am done managing it but I am navigating the fall-out from it, which is mainly just my feelings right now.
During the play therapy session we did mandalas and sand tray therapy. And it was SOOO relaxing for me. I felt like I had entered a new sphere, one in which my heart didn't feel as tight and sad.
Also I'm battling jet lag from study abroad and just a bit of stomach bug from the trip as well, so I'm sure that's not helping. But either way, the sand tray and the mandala making was so beautiful for me personally.
The conference involved learning about 4 types of play therapy, as well as play therapy in general. In general, they recommended having a room (preferably) with toys that feels like a warm cozy space in which to do play therapy. But also, you can make it work with a bag that has a bunch of toys if you are doing home-based work.
Our teachers (who happen to be my two wonderful supervisors) recommended us having a variety of toys for children to engage with in a variety of way, including:
-real life/family/nurturance (dolls, puppets, dollhouse with furniture)
-expressive/communication (ie phones, megaphone, binoculars)
-acting out/aggressive release (controversial) (ie guns, plastic knives, pillows for hitting, toy soldiers, dinosaurs, swords, play bats)
-mastery (ie nerf basketball, bean bag toss, legos, blocks, water play, hula hoop, ring toss)
-expression/play/fantasy/pretend (ie play food, medical kit, play money, art supplies, mirrors, cars, play-doh, etc)
Our teachers think that acting out toys are needed because this is REAL life and the kids will be exposed to it either way.
When you bring a child to the play room, tell them that this is a special room where they can play with anything they want in anyway. don't set limits. then the school of thought differs on clean-up - some say the child needs to clean up, some don't. one of our teachers told us how one of her clients (who was about 5, I think) would pull EVERYTHING out - every single toy in the room - thus very disorganized play. by three months into the work, he was able to regulate his play more.
when leaving, give 5 minute and 1 minute warnings and gently guide the child to leave. limit setting is important, though challenging.
the 4 types of therapy:
Child Centered Non Directive Play Therapy
-comment and narrate (gently) what the child is doing. "you have a purple crayon. look at that circle you're making with the crayon"
LIMITING QUESTIONS - very hard, very necessary. interferes in child's world.
-narration of play and tracking - objective is for the child to feel that you are present and understanding of their world.
-being a witness is powerful
-limit questions and let the child show you how they want to play
-if they draw you into their play utilize the stage whisper
-it's OK for child to contradict you
-garry landreth video and Eliana Gil are good examples
Art Therapy
-dyadic art therapy between parent and child can strengthen ties
-can be a source of release
-mandalas in art therapy: sacred circles
-if possible, have a variety of mediums available so people can fully express themselves
-offering a prompt can be helpful but if child feels inspired to create their own thing that's good too
-cool idea: have a child build or draw an aquarium that's safe for everyone who lives there. can do as a family, parents might be intrusive so encourage them to let the child lead.
(food, hiding spaces, as possibilities - is there food insecurity? does the child have a place to go when scared? what kinds of comfort and space do they look for?)
Theraplay
-originally developed to work with foster kids and their parents
-A LOT OF ACTION
-theraplay is registered and is the OPPOSITE of child centered play therapy
-very frenetic, almost. we watched a video.
-based on playing games and doing activities with the child that build into 4 different dimensions.
-treatment starts with an assessment called the Mershak and then the clinician decides based on this what the family needs to work on in terms of dimensions (below) and tailors the activities to that.
-it has 4 dimensions: structure, nurture, engagement, challenge
structure: involves structured games like red light green light and Simon says that encourage child to follow parent's lead.
engagement: engage the child while attuned. if a parent is depressed or using substances this is hard.
nurture: ability to meet child's needs for soothing and love and care and attention. parents may not have been nurtured in their past so they don't know how to nurture.
challenge: capacity to support and encourage the child's efforts to achieve, children need to feel mastery
Theraplay involves rebalancing family structure (Minuchin - the theory behind this - Family Structural Therapy) and building child's resilience too.
Sand Tray Therapy
-very jungian in its analysis, but less so in the actual process
-involves giving children (or adults!) the blank canvas of a sandbox (personal-sized) in a rectangular or octagonal shape. the inside of the box is often painted blue, like the sky or the sea.
-therapist provides a lot of miniature items that the person can make a scene out of.
-important not to have too many "minis" because it means that the kid/person could be overwhelmed.
-building scenes/using sand for art is an ancient (and modern) practice. used by Tibbetan monks.
-for me, because I know the theory and analysis behind it, I knew I was going to overanalyze what I was doing so I just went with it. I made the scene to fit how I was feeling and was like YEAH this is going to have a ton of analysis potential.
Overall I think I see myself resonating with the Child Centered (because I use it) and the sand tray and art therapy pieces from the environmental/holistic side of my work. Theraplay seems really specialized and freaked a lot of us out - seeing the video made us think that there was a lot of force involved. But I like being exposed to new things and expanding my worldview, so it was valuable to learn about Theraplay too.
Comments
Post a Comment