livery of therapy to children, courses in play therapy should be offered in MFT programs. Through a qualitative review of literature, this paper will provide supportive evidence to indicate why play therapy is a valid therapeutic approach that should be introduced to students of MFT. First, the historical development of play therapy from various strands of established therapeutic approaches will be discussed. More specifically, the work of some of the major contributors will be described concisely to illuminate the validity of play therapy as a legitimate therapeutic approach with a strong established tradition. Second, the applicability of play therapy to young children, particularly those aged between 3 and 11, will be explained. Finally, the use of play therapy with three specific populations of children will be explored. The focus of this paper will be the use of play therapy with children of divorced parents. Furthermore, the utilization of play therapy with children who have witnessed domestic violence in their family and children who have been bullied will also be briefly discussed.
Over the last 80 years, theorists from diverse traditions of psychotherapy have contributed to the unique development of play therapy. According to the British Association of Play Therapists (2003), the founders of child psychotherapyùAnna Freud and Melanie Kleinùwere one of the first theorists and therapists to recognize the power of play as a means for children to express their unconscious world of thoughts, perceptions, feelings and experiences. Both Anna Freud and Melanie Klein sought to transfer the Freudian psychoanalytical approach to the analysis of children. Through their use of imaginative play, drawings, dreams and daydreams in play therapy, Freud and Klein sought to uncover and interpret the unconscious thought processes of their child clients (Edgcumbe, 2000; Klein, 1959).
Anna Freud. Freud's utilization of play t...