Handbook of Play Therapy

Kevin J. O'Connor, Charles E. Schaefer, Lisa D. Braverman, Lisa D. Braverman

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781118859834
• eBook ISBN: 9781118859827
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

A complete, comprehensive play therapy resource for mental health professionals

Handbook of Play Therapy is the one-stop resource for play therapists with coverage of all major aspects written by experts in the field. This edition consolidates the coverage of both previous volumes into one book, updated to reflect the newest findings and practices of the field.

Useful for new and experienced practitioners alike, this guide provides a comprehensive introduction and overview of play therapy including, theory and technique, special populations, nontraditional settings, professional and contemporary issues. Edited by the founders of the field, each chapter is written by well-known and respected academics and practitioners in each topic area and includes research, assessment, strategies, and clinical application. This guide covers all areas required for credentialing from the Association for Play Therapy, making it uniquely qualified as the one resource for certification preparation.

• Learn the core theories and techniques of play therapy
• Apply play therapy to special populations and in nontraditional settings
• Understand the history and emerging issues in the field
• Explore the research and evidence base, clinical applications, and more

Psychologists, counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers, and psychiatric nurses regularly utilize play therapy techniques to facilitate more productive sessions and promote better outcomes for patients. Handbook of Play Therapy provides the deep, practical understanding needed to incorporate these techniques into practice.

Part 1

Introduction

Chapter 1
An Introduction to the Field of Play Therapy

John W. Seymour

The field of play therapy in the Western tradition began when the early pioneers of psychotherapy began to apply and adapt their emerging approaches to psychotherapy with adults to the mental health needs of children. Early on, play was identified as a child's natural way of establishing relationships, communicating, and problem solving. Sigmund Freud saw play as a child-like form of free association, and as such, thought it could provide a window to the inner workings of the child's mind (D'Angelo & Koocher, 2011; Ellenberger, 1981). Hermione Hug-Hellmuth (1921) published and presented the first professional paper using the term play therapy. Anna Freud (1936/1966) and Melanie Klein (1932) focused on extending and applying psychoanalytic approaches to children, and each wrote of the role of play in their work with children (Donaldson, 1996). Play in therapy was seen as developmentally appropriate for interacting with children and as a vital part of the psychotherapeutic process (Carmichael, 2006; O'Connor, 2000). Initially, however, play was not seen as a separate modality from analysis but as a seamless part of the therapy process. As Donald Winnicott (1971) described:

Psychotherapy takes place in the overlap of two areas of playing, that of the patient and that of the therapist. Psychotherapy has to do with two people playing together. The corollary of this is that where playing is not possible then the work done by the therapist is directed towards bringing the patient from a state of not being able to play into a state of being able to play. (p. 53)

Since these early beginnings, a number of clinical models of psychotherapy for adults (behavioral, client-centered, cognitive, and gestalt) began to develop that both built on and challenged the assumptions of the early analytic models (Prochaska & Norcross, 2010). Many of these models were then adapted for use with children, utilizing play as a way to engage, assess, communicate, and positively impact their young clients (Carmichael, 2006; Kottman, 2011; Landreth, 2012; O'Connor, 2000). Throughout its history, play therapy has been practiced by a variety of child mental health professions, each of which adapted it through the lens of their own evolving disciplines, responding to the needs of children in their distinct historical times, and creating applications for their treatment settings. Play therapy was not so much seen as a professional field distinct from the broader field of psychotherapy, but as a particular way of extending psychotherapy to children in a form better matched to their developmental, emotional, cognitive, and relational abilities.

Challenges to Psychotherapy and Play Therapy

Mental health professionals continued to develop various psychotherapy models, and by the 1970s there were almost 100 models (Saltzman & Norcross, 1990) with competing claims of applicability, efficacy, and primacy. Research findings on the effectiveness of psychotherapy ranged widely, from studies showing little or no benefit to any type of psychotherapy to studies showing substantial benefit for many types of psychotherapy (Prochaska & Norcross, 2010; Saltzman & Norcross, 1990). Simultaneously, child development research had been growing since the 1950s and was being incorporated into the practice of child psychotherapy. Behavioral models were becoming more widely used. These emphasized a more psychoeducational approach to clinical practice, with less emphasis on the relational and dynamic processes that had characterized the field up until then. This proliferation of models and claims resulted in a call for more dialogue between researchers and practitioners, the development of integrated models, more accountability for therapeutic outcomes, and the development of more research-based prescriptive psychotherapy adaptations (Duncan, Miller, Wampold, & Hubble, 2010; Norcross, VandenBos, & Freedheim, 2011; Wampold, 2001).

Through the 1960s and into the 1980s (and for that matter, even today) play therapy has continued to be practiced by child mental health professionals from various disciplines using the whole range of existing psychotherapy models. This combination of interdisciplinary practice and the variety of therapeutic models has created a rich play therapy tradition. Yet, these same qualities made it difficult for play therapy as a field to provide a unified response to competing trends that challenged the use and effectiveness of play therapy as a form of child psychotherapy. Louise Guerney and Charles Schaefer, active proponents of play therapy during this period, have reflected on the challenges the field faced (Association for Play Therapy, 2010b, 2010d). There were few, if any, books or articles being published in the field, training opportunities were limited, and there was no professional group specifically identified to promote the field. It was, as Guerney described it, “the dark ages of play therapy” (Association for Play Therapy, 2010b).

The Field of Play Therapy Begins to Emerge

Out of those challenges came a proposal by Charles Schaefer to form an organization to revitalize the field of play therapy. In 1982, he enlisted Kevin O'Connor as a cofounder and formed the Association for Play Therapy, initially bringing together a group of play therapy professionals for the exchange of information, establishment of training, and creation of collaborative networks of researchers, educators, and practitioners (Association for Play Therapy, 2010d). O'Connor took the lead in creating the association's first newsletter, and Schaefer coordinated the first few national conferences. Along with Schaefer and O'Connor, the original directors included Louise Guerney, Eleanor Irwin, Ann Jernberg, Garry Landreth, Henry Maier, Borislava Mandich, and Eileen Nickerson (Association for Play Therapy, 2014). Two years later, the association offices moved to California and were housed at the California School of Professional Psychology, where O'Connor had been appointed as a faculty member. The association began to grow, and over time it began to realize the vision of its founders.

Developing a Strong Professional Organization

The early group of networking play therapy practitioners, instructors, and researchers would need the strength and resources of a much larger organization. Seeing the need to involve a wider base of play therapists, the board of directors named Lessie Perry as the first membership campaign chair in 1988 to lead this effort (Association for Play Therapy, 2010c). In 1991, the association launched a companion fundraising organization, the Foundation for Play Therapy, to help fund play therapy research and public awareness campaigns. In 1992, the first two state branches were chartered in Oregon and Texas (Association for Play Therapy, 2014) in an effort to begin to better serve the networking and training needs of play therapists on a more regional basis.

The association held its first annual conference in 1984, hosting over 50 mental health professionals committed to the emerging field of play therapy. The first three conferences were held in New York. The fourth conference was hosted by the University of North Texas in 1987 under the direction of Garry Landreth. Since then, the conference site has been rotated among geographic areas of the United States of America and Canada to expand the reach of the organization and its mission. There were over 1,100 attendees at the 10th conference held in Atlanta in 1993, and overall membership stood right at 3,000. The 10th conference provided a forum for a number of leaders in the field to offer their insights on the developments in the field over the past 10 years and the challenges that lay ahead (Berner, Duke, Guillory, & Oe, 1994). John Allan identified opportunities for growth including the need for qualified play therapy supervisors; the development of well-equipped play therapy rooms in schools, agencies, and hospitals; more collaboration between play therapy and family therapy; and more play therapy research. Kevin O'Connor expanded on the research challenges by calling for the increased identification of basic play therapy processes and the development of a comprehensive theoretical model. Charles Schaefer called for research to identify whether specific disorders would benefit from specific types of play therapy. These themes have shaped the association's mission since then and are woven into many of the current programs and initiatives.

In this same general time frame, Phillips and Landreth (1995, 1998) conducted an extensive survey of mental health professionals practicing play therapy, including many members of the association and a number of other professionals identified through related interests and organizations. They found the greatest number of play therapists self-reported having an eclectic theoretical orientation, followed by those who reported having a cli...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Preface
• About the Editors
• Contributors
• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Core Theories
• Part 3: Core Techniques
• Part 4: Applications for Special Populations
• Part 5: Therapy in Nontraditional Settings
• Part 6: Professional Issues
• Part 7: Contemporary Issues
• Part 8: Research
• Author Index
• Subject Index
• End User License Agreement