Play Therapy
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The topic of this paper was the provision of play therapy courses in marriage and family therapy (MFT) programs. Although marriage and family therapists encounter child clients, they are often poorly-trained to interact effectively with them. Play therapy was proposed as a means of enabling therapists to better assist young children in the therapeutic process. Through a qualitative review of literature, the following areas were discussed: a) the historical development of play therapy; b) the applicability of play therapy to children, which meets their developmental needs and abilities; and c) the utilization of play therapy strategies. This discussion also showed that professionals working with children often rely on play therapy. However, without appropriate training, their application of play therapy will not achieve intended results. Although children are often direct or indirect clients in marriage and family therapy, research studies have shown that marriage and family therapists are not well-trained to work with them. This lack of training is manifested in their inadequate knowledge of child development and their unfamiliarity with interacting with children (Johnson & Thomas, 1999; Korner & Brown, 1990; Ruble, 1999; Setchel, 1998, cited in Hanney & Kozlowska, 2002). In most marriage and family therapy (MFT) programs, marriage and family therapists are primarily trained in using theories and techniques such as narrative therapy, deconstructive
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mic developmental orientation. With this cognitive and emotional capacity, adults can entertain several perspectives of the various aspects of people and events at the same time. Moreover, they are able to transcend the limited perspectives of their lives to take a systemic view of how the larger societal systems affect their lives.
Based on the above description of the stages of cognitive-emotional development, it is evident that children aged between 3 and 11 will often lack the reasoning capacity to understand and interpret their problems in a logical fashion. For example, a first-grade student in the sensori-motor stage may not be able to properly express that he is sad about his parents' divorce. Instead, he may demonstrate his egocentric thinking by stating his wish for his parents to attend his baseball game so that they can see how much fun they can have as a family. Another child may not even able to verbalize her emotion; instead, she may pull out pieces of her hair to display the intensity of her anguish over her parents' divorce (Myers, Shoffner, & Briggs, 2002).
Furthermore, Hanney and Kozlowska (2002) emphasized that preschool children who are confronted with stressful situations or memories experience a p
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Hanney Kozlowska, According Vygotsky, Melanie Klein, Coleman White, Virginia Axline, Lang White, Children Divorce, Van Dyk, Gevers Goddard-Jones, Domestic Violence, play therapy, child clients, domestic violence, marriage family, kozlowska 2002, therapeutic process, hanney kozlowska, hanney kozlowska 2002, therapy children, play therapy children, van dyk, mft programs, marriage family therapists, coleman white 1988, marriage family therapy,
Approximate Word count = 7764
Approximate Pages = 31 (250 words per page)
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