Theory use and therapeutic value of symbolic play

Psychoanalysis stresses the importance of fantasy and symbolic play.

Homeyer and Mary O. The authors discuss the importance of play in development, the therapeutic benefits of play, the rich history of play therapy, and recent research and current issues and trends in the field, including the need for more mental health professionals trained to work with children.

Play therapy is an effective means of responding to the mental health needs of young children and is widely accepted as a valuable and developmentally appropriate intervention. Critical Needs in the Mental Health of Children Mental health needs of children in the United States and around the world are urgent and growing to crisis level.

Play Therapy – Practice, Issues, and Trends | Animal Ludens

Inthe U. Surgeon General stated that mental illness affects one out of ten children and adolescents, thus continuing a twenty-year trend. According to John R. Weisz and Kristin M. Hawleythose children already diagnosed with a mental illness may have, on average, three-and-a-half diagnoses.

Internationally, the need is also great and increasing. Inthe World Health Organization stated that 20 percent of children worldwide suffer from disabling mental health problems.

There is, in addition, an overwhelming and growing need for mental health professionals with special training to work with children. Largely accepted as the mental health intervention of choice for children, the play therapy field in particular needs more trained practitioners.

The Importance of Play Play is the natural world of the child. Children learn about themselves, others, and their world through play. Inthe Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights identified play as a right for all children everywhere to achieve optimum development, and inthe American Academy of Pediatrics issued a white paper Ginsberg on the importance of play for healthy child development.

The s, often called the Decade of the Brain, produced significant research identifying the critical role of play in brain development.

What Is Symbolic Play? | initiativeblog.com

This understanding has become so pervasive that the research is reaching the popular press, as demonstrated by articles in Newsweek Begley and Time Nash Research in neurobiological development and psychological trauma, as discussed by Phyllis T.

Stien and Joshua C. Kendall in and by Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz inhas demonstrated how play stimulates the neural structures in the brain and is critical for normal development. This includes play and play therapy to assist in treating children who experience severe trauma.

Trauma often remains stuck in the nonverbal parts of the brain—amygdala, thalamus, hypocampus, or brain stem. Meanwhile, the ability to think through life events and the ability to process these events takes place in the frontal lobes of the brain.

Treatment needs to somehow incorporate the sensations and actions that have become stuck, so that people can regain a sense of familiarity and efficiency in their organism. Play as Therapy Charles E. Schaefer has discussed the therapeutic powers of play in numerous published worksa, and b.

He points out that play helps overcome resistance to therapy.It has a therapeutic value. With the growth of play therapy, play work, filial play and the use of therapeutic play skills there is widespread confusion about the roles of each and the skills required to be a proficient practitioner.

(see also background) The Therapeutic Play Continuum was developed by Monika Jephcott and Jeff Thomas, whilst.

through objects and through symbolic play; this idea is the basis of play therapy. Play therapy is most often used with children between the ages of 3 and 10, although it can be useful with some older children as well (Kottman, ).

More specifically, the Association of Play Therapy (APT) describes play therapy as “the systematic use of a theoretical model to establish interpersonal process wherein trained play therapists use the therapeutic powers of play to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and .

The therapeutic value of symbolic play In terms of the therapeutic value of symbolic play, as Axline () discusses, therapeutic play can be delivered through one of two major approaches, namely via non-directive play therapy and via directive play therapy (Oaklander, ).

Katherine Cruz Therapeutic Use of Play Definitions Play Descriptions Non-directive Play Therapy History Sigmund Freud was the first to record use of play in therapy.

Therapeutic Play Continuum

Melanie Klein was the first to apply rules for working with children, Ex. play analysis. By the twentieth century society began to.

* Symbolic Expression in Play * Therapeutic Expression in Play * Therapeutic Value of Play. 6. Ascertain how various child populations respond to play therapy 7. Describe the therapeutic uses of play therapy with children and when it is contraindicated.

* Object Relations Theory * Role Play in the Autistic, Symbiotic, and Separation-.