‘An Introduction to Child Centered Play Therapy’

A 2-day Workshop

Date: 17,18,19 February 2011

Venue: The Nest Kahikatea Drive, Hamilton

Course Presenters: Judi Jacobsen MNZAC (play therapist, counsellor) & Megan Longman MNZASW (play therapist, social worker)

Child Centered Play Therapy

The play therapy model presented at the workshop is Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT). In CCPT, there is an underlying belief in and trust of the inner person of the child and their innate capacity to strive towards growth and maturity. The Child Centered Play Therapist is concerned with developing the kind of relationship that facilitates inner emotional growth and children’s belief in themselves. CCPT is an attitude, a philosophy, and a way of being with children rather than a way of doing something to or for children (The Art of Relationship, Garry Landreth, 2002). Play is the natural world of a child, and in their play a child can express their thoughts and feelings and come to an understanding of their world. Within the unique relationship that is developed between the child and therapist, the child learns to value and respect themselves; to recognise their strengths, values and abilities; and to trust in their own ability to make decisions which are based on an internal wisdom and not on external pressures.

‘An Introduction to Child Centered Play Therapy’ will be of interest to counsellors, social workers, teachers, early childhood educators, psychotherapists, psychologists, creative art therapists, and others who work with children, as well as students who are training in these areas.

Content of Workshop

The philosophy and principles of CCPT

What is CCPT, who it can help, and how it can help

The process of building a relationship with a child

Therapeutic language that shows a true belief in the person of the child: The four healing messages – I am here, I hear you, I understand and I care

Noticing, listening, acknowledging, and therapeutic limit setting

Following the child’s lead

Returning responsibility to the child

Facilitating the development of children’s strengths

Building a child’s self-esteem

Participating in a child’s play without structuring

Empowering children

Ways of responding outside of the playroom—greeting a child and saying goodbye.

Responding to a child who is reluctant to leave the playroom

Rationale & Goals for Workshop

Child Centered Play Therapy comes from a solid theoretical base and it is now recognised as one of the most effective ways of working with children who have been exposed to trauma. This workshop offers course participants a glimpse into the fascinating world of CCPT, and we anticipate that course participants will leave the workshop with a greater knowledge and understanding of CCPT as well as an awareness of the efficacy of this approach when working with children. Participants will be able to take away with them a broader and deeper range of facilitative responses, as well as an understanding of the philosophy behind these, to use in their daily interactions with children.

With no formal training or workshops available for CCPT in New Zealand, this workshop is unique. It offers course participants the opportunity to experience first-hand this very safe and deeply respectful way of working with children who have been exposed to trauma and who are experiencing
difficulties in their lives.

judi@childplayworks.co.nz

www.childplayworks.co.nz

You may find yourself anxious and when you feel this anxiety, you become even more anxious (this anxiety that drives further anxiety is common). One technique in CBT is to create a “Thought Record”, where you try to make a note of what you were doing and thinking each time you became anxious. By keeping this record for a week and then bringing it to your therapy session, you are able to sit down with your counsellor and see what sort of thoughts and actions bring on, maintain and feed into your anxiety. Knowing the “triggers” for your anxiety then allows you to develop with your therapists new ways of thinking and acting that will take away the fuel from your anxiety.

If you think that this therapeutic approach might help you, feel free to contact us to discuss further.

The video only covers the basics of CBT, but it is a good intro for those looking into this form of therapy.

If you are looking for therapeutic assistance yourself and believe that CBT might be for you, contact us to see how we can help.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSO6iAFekPw

In psychoanalysis, the problems of the present are always rooted in conflicts of the past and the client is required to give the therapist a great deal of detail about the life experiences of the client, in order to provide the therapist with a picture of the life in which conflicts have developed.

Reflection of Feeling:

Reflection of Feeling involves the counsellor listening attentively and then repeating back to the client the feelings that have been expressed, either verbatim, or in the counsellor’s own words.

Example:

A client discusses being overwhelmed and the therapist either reflects back this same expression, saying “You are overwhelmed” or by using another descriptive word or expression of the counsellor’s choosing, such as “You are feeling overcome by the events of the last week.” While repeating the same words can sometimes be effective, the selection of similar words and expressions is generally preferred, to keep the client from feeling that the therapist is “parroting” him or her.

Reflection of Content:

Reflection of Content involves listening to a client and then repeating back to the client either verbatim or the essence of the facts that were given to the therapist. When the counsellor reflects back the essence of what has been said, rather than the exact content, it is referred to as “paraphrasing”. While reflection of feeling involves discussing the emotions of the client, reflection of content emphasises facts and statements.

Example:

A client tells his or her therapist about a very stressful week that the client has been having. While never using the word “stressful”, the client goes into great detail about all of the things that had to get accomplished and the feelings that accompanied these tasks. The therapist feels empathy for the client and says “It sounds like you had a very stressful week.” The client nods after hearing this paraphrasing of the content of what s/he just said.

Questions:

Questions are used in counselling, but not as much as some might think. Questions are used to help the client to self-explore or to help the client develop insight, but not simply to satisfy the curiosity of the counsellor.

Summarising:

Summarising involves reflecting back feelings and content and paraphrasing, but rather than dealing with a few brief sentences, summarising covers the important topics that a client discussed over an extended number of client statements. While reflecting and paraphrasing have objectives such as encouraging the client to talk further and to show the client that the therapist hears and understands him or her, summarising is often used to give a client an overview of what has been discussed or, if used at the end of the counselling session, to help wrap up the counselling session.

Within a formal counselling environment, the client with anger management issues is allowed to discuss events and episodes that lead to angry outbursts. After discussing these “triggers”, the client is allows to look for common trends, common thoughts, common emotions and other things that accompany the anger episodes. Once triggers and maladaptive thoughts have been identified, the client is then able to begin to develop strategies for dealing with their thoughts and feelings that bring on anger and look for ways to develop more emotionally and socially productive responses.

If you are looking for help with your own anger management issues or those of a loved one and would like to discussing counselling options, please feel free to contact us using the “Contact” link at the top of all pages on this site.

In the first of these videos, Carl mentions the three attributes necessary in a therapist for change to occur – congruence, empathy and unconditional positive regard. This video is followed by four more that make up the taped session of Roger’s meeting with Gloria.

Part One:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HarEcd4bt-s

Part Two:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m30jsZx_Ngs

Part Three:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX_Y3zUPzEo

Part Four:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHxl5NtcDow

Part Five:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L19nXMvbS8E

This is a series of videos of a Gestalt therapy session, involving Frederick Perls, the therapist, and the client “Gloria”

Approaches to Psychotherapy – Frederick Perls and “Gloria” (1/3)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHLXHQWJX4M

Approaches to Psychotherapy – Frederick Perls and “Gloria” (2/3)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lHSxiIAqKE

Approaches to Psychotherapy – Frederick Perls and “Gloria” (3/3)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk0VeLg_Vm0

This counselling session with Gloria can be compared to the Carl Rogers counselling Gloria session.

This series of videos covers a therapy session with Albert Ellis, as therapist, and the client “Gloria”.

Approaches to Psychotherapy – Albert Ellis (1/4)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh-wTzoQZ_s

Approaches to Psychotherapy – Albert Ellis (2/4)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6oZGjVLC34

Approaches to Psychotherapy – Albert Ellis (3/4)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwjRrAcJn_g

Approaches to Psychotherapy – Albert Ellis (4/4)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YDLzGkOOzA

To see other counselling techniques with this same client, see also Carl Rogers with Gloria and Frederick Perls with Gloria.