Image
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Products
  • Resources
  • News
  • Blog

Archive for family roles

Shadow’s Edge: A Mobile Game for Teens Who Struggle with Chronic Illness

Posted by Gary Yorke 
· November 30, 2018 
· No Comments

 

For young people who struggle with chronic illnesses or emotional challenge, the weight of their trauma is ever-present, yet rarely are they given the opportunity to talk about the dark or scary side of their situations, let alone have a tool to help them move through and grow from their experience.

Enter the Digging Deep Project, with the mission of empowering teens to take charge of their emotional health in fun and engaging ways.

The Project’s newest product, the recently released mobile game, Shadow’s Edge, is designed to build resilience in teens with medical or emotional challenges. Combining psychology and technology, this free app reaches teens with psycho-educational content right where they are—on their mobile devices and playing games!

Shadow’s Edge players are guided through a process of journaling and creative expression, helping these teen players come to terms with their challenges within an immersive, edgy game world.

The quest of the player is to revive Shadow’s Edge, a city that has been decimated by storm.  Through gameplay, teens learn they can rebuild their lives by trusting their feelings and finding meaning in their experience.

Teens struggling with hardship needn’t stay in an isolated or dark world—they have the power to reshape it. They can create beauty where there was once dilapidation: There can be light; There can be colour; There can be hope.

Available for free on the App Store and Google Play. For more information and blog for and by teens visit www.shadowsedge.com.  For parents and professionals, more information on www.diggingdeep.org.

No Comments
Categories : Behavior, Conflict, Depression, Feelings, Parenting, Play Therapy Games
Tags : anger, anxiety, board games, childhood stress, counseling games, family roles, feelings, games, Play Therapy, play therapy gams, teens, therapeutic games for teens, therapy games

August Play Therapy Wrap-Up

Posted by Gary Yorke 
· September 5, 2018 
· No Comments

Blog

This month, Dr. Gary shared the importance of emotional literacy. Therapists and counselors are often concerned about a child’s emotional literacy. Emotionally literate children can manage their feelings and their reactions to those feelings. They can recognize and respond to other people’s feelings, which is a significant advantage in life. Feelings are the most basic building blocks of social skills. Without the ability to recognize feelings in themselves and others, children are not able to master social interactions. Read more here.

Articles

New studies have found that toddlers as young as two years old are able to understand that their actions are being judged. They understand that their actions can render positive or negative reactions from others. This is important because it shows us that children, at a very young age, begin to understand far more than we assume. Read full article here.

As we return our loved ones back to school yards, campuses, and trusted teachers, we are too familiar with the temptations that our children face with each new school year. Social media is often an outlet to which they turn. The number of media platforms is ever-growing, however, and it may seem hopeless to a parent to monitor and supervise. Thankfully, we have found some useful tips to help you keep your loved ones safe on the web! Read full article here.

Bullying is scary. It’s a scary concept for parents that could become their child’s reality. But bullying in all forms is a sign of ignorance, and the best way to stop it is to educate your children about what bullying is, and what they should do it they see it, or become a victim. Loren Santos, a school counselor at Franklin Elementary School in Baltimore County, Maryland has six tips to help you talk about bullying with your children. Read full article here.

No Comments
Categories : Bullying, Child Development, Feelings, Monthly Wrap-Up, Parenting, Wrap Up
Tags : board games, childhood stress, counseling games, development, family roles, feelings, Play Therapy, therapeutic games for children

July Play Therapy Wrap-Up

Posted by Gary Yorke 
· August 7, 2018 
· No Comments

Blog

This month produced a treasure trove of info and advice. Donna Hammontree outlined the differences between Rights, Responsibilities, Privileges, and Rewards. Knowing the difference between them is important to helping children and teens regulate their behavior. Donna cautions to be consistent when coaching your children/clients, and use positive reinforcement rather than negative. Read more here.

Articles

According to the University of Michigan, there is no correlation between pressuring you children to eat food they don’t want to eat, and positive results of any kind. Researchers say that picky eaters’ weight is unrelated to how hard their parents push them to eat “healthy” foods. likewise, their attitude towards those foods did not improved. You might just be fighting an uphill battle for no reason! Read full article here.

Living in the present has many advantages for children and adults alike. It can sometimes be easy to let worry and fear for what has been, or what could be, turn your day upside down. Rabbi Sam Frenkel’s mission is to use play therapy to help children overcome those worries by living in the present and focusing on today. Read full article here.

It can sometimes be hard to release the reins that keep a parent feeling in control of their children. But as a parent, your role is not to make your child’s decisions for them, but to teach them to make the right choices on their own. This can be exceptionally difficult because a parents first instinct will always be to ensure their child’s safety and happiness. Nancy Buck discusses how you can achieve that without being a helicopter parent. Read full article here.

No Comments
Categories : Anxiety, Feelings, Monthly Wrap-Up, Parenting, Play Therapy, Wrap Up
Tags : child development, childhood stress, counseling games, development, family roles, feelings, parenting, Play Therapy, play therapy intervention, therapy intervention

April Play Therapy Wrap-Up

Posted by Gary Yorke 
· May 8, 2018 
· No Comments

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. -C.S. Lewis

 Blog

April was autism awareness month as well as child abuse prevention month. Our post this month showed the staggering statistics of child abuse, as well as highlighted methods to keep child therapists who work with abused children trained and emotionally healthy. Dr. Gary shared valuable resources for child therapists working with abused children. Read more here.

Articles

Children learn to regulate their emotions by watching the adults around them. That can seem stressful in and of itself, and you might find yourself saying, “Do as I say, not as I do!” But it’s OK for your children to learn their cues from you. You just have to be mindful of what you’re doing when you become emotional, i.e. angry, sad, frustrated, overjoyed, etc. This article outlines how to use your own body and feelings as teaching tools for healthy emotional coping. Read full article here.

Usually the feeling of guilt is an unpleasant one; a heavy one. In this new study,  researcher Amrisha Vaish, of the University of Virginia, finds that the beginning stages of guilt seem to develop around the age of three. Why is this significant? Vaish views the development of guilt as an opportunity for children to learn to make amends, and better foster social relationships. Read full article here.

There are too many factors to count that lead to a child growing into a productive adult with a “good” job. According to Jenny Anderson, letting children play more is a key factor. Playing leads to self discovery and problem solving and, “helping kids play more ‘will equip them to be relevant to the workplace and to society,’ said John Goodwin, CEO of the Lego Foundation and the former chief financial officer for The Lego Group.” Read full article here.

No Comments
Categories : Behavior, Child Development, Feelings, Monthly Wrap-Up, Parenting, Play Therapy, Play Therapy news, Research and Case Studies, Resources, Trauma and Grief, Wrap Up
Tags : Child Abuse, child therapy, childhood stress, development, family roles, feelings, Play Therapy

March Play Therapy Wrap-Up

Posted by Gary Yorke 
· April 2, 2018 
· No Comments

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglas

Blog

The internet can be a wonderful source of information and learning for young students, but it can also be a scary place for teens, and a difficult place for parents to monitor.  Fortunately, there are tools to help parents and adolescents.  In this blog about teen cyber-safety, we outline some on the problem areas on the internet, as well as the tools to educate young teens on the dangers of the internet and how to stay safe. Read more here!

Articles

A new study from the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University in Montreal, Canada suggests that autistic children benefit from being bilingual. “In the first study of its kind, scientists show that bilingual children with autism spectrum disorders can switch mental gears more easily than those who can only speak one language.” It’s common that autistic children have difficulty transitioning between tasks, and studies shows that being bilingual improves executive functioning. Researchers set out to find if being bilingual could help executive flexibility in children with ASD. Read full article here.

Video gaming among children and adolescents is a much debated topic. Can a person become addicted to gaming? Nancy Petry, a professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and editor of the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors explains gaming disorder, how to identify it, and how to seek help. While gaming disorder effects a very small number of people, gaming as become a very popular pass-time for all ages of players, and it’s important to be aware of potential problems.  Read full article here.

Studies have shown that adolescents who perform non-fatal self-harm are 26.7 times more likely to commit suicide within the next year. Though self-harm is not always performed with suicidal intent, the risks of repeat self-harm and possibly eventually suicide are related and high.  In this article, Molly Walker of MedPage Today highlights studies and statistics on who is more commonly at risk, and what preventative measures can be taken. Self-harm is never simply a cry for attention and should be taken very seriously. Read full article here. 

 

 

No Comments
Categories : Autism, Behavior, Depression, Executive Functioning, Monthly Wrap-Up, Parenting, Wrap Up
Tags : child play therapy toys, child therapy toys, childhood stress, counseling games, family roles, feelings, mental health disorders, Play Therapy, play therapy intervention, teens, therapy toys

How Does Play Therapy Reduce Anxiety in Children? by Joseph Sacks, LCSW

Posted by Gary Yorke 
· January 24, 2018 
· No Comments

Is your child struggling with anxiety?

Is he or she visibly tense or nervous at different times during the day?

Does he put pressure on himself to get everything perfect, and is distressed when he makes mistakes or things don’t turn out just right?

Do your efforts to get her to relax only make things worse, making you feel powerless to help her?

Do you wonder about Play Therapy and anxiety regarding your child?

shutterstock_73287025.jpg

Anxiety is one of the most common disorders in children, affecting over 10 percent of those under 18. Unfortunately, it can rob a child of the happiness that he or she needs so much.

The good news is that Child-Centered Play Therapy, together with Parenting Counseling, can do wonders to reduce and even resolve childhood anxiety!

I have seen it bring improvement with many children!

How does it work?

Often anxiety in children is generated by when a child, because of certain stressors in his or her life, develops feelings of shame and being in a state of low self-esteem. These feelings of low self-worth lead to anxiety in several ways. It may lead some children towards perfectionism, where the child feels badly about himself and tries to redeem himself from those feelings by creating self-imposed pressure to be very good, to have amazing performance or near-perfect output.

The underlying psychological mechanism is that the child reasons,

shutterstock_628022438.jpg

“Feeling so badly about myself is intolerable and I feel helpless to remedy it. What can I actively do to fix it? I know, I will be such a good boy, I will work very hard to accomplish amazing things, and then I will be so accomplished that I will be so proud that I will automatically and necessarily feel great about myself! For sure I will no longer feel badly or ashamed.” Along these lines we find the genesis of perfectionism. The problem is that such a strategy can never work, because objective external accomplishments, no matter how great, cannot defuse the cause and fuel of his low self-esteem. So often even after accomplishing much, the child still feels badly, and then resolves to strive even further towards perfection. This can create great anxiety because after all, consistent, perfect performance is impossible, and the child will inevitably almost always fall short of his desired goals, creating great fear of failure.

To learn more about treating perfectionism in teens or older children, click here.

In addition his idealizing of perfect performance leads him to judge himself very harshly when he is imperfect,

generating much shame and anxiety over being stranded in a state of low self-esteem.

shutterstock_92627368.jpg

Furthermore, such children may have unfortunately been criticized by people in their life, and they feel they must get everything perfect and achieve amazing things to get themselves beyond the reach of any potential criticism. This pressure generates anxiety.

To learn more about the pitfalls of criticizing children, click here.

Another common cause of anxiety is fear of reprimands and disapproval of the adults in a child’s life.

Children feel very small and powerless compared to adults and they cringe and wither under fear of reprimands, scolding, disapproval and criticism. Some children are constantly worried about not meriting enough approval and avoiding rebuke, and this generates significant anxiety. They feel pressure that they are not Ok they way they presently are, and they constantly have to measure up.

To learn more about the pitfalls of scolding and reprimands, click here.

Sometimes children learn to be anxious by example,

shutterstock_143878201.jpg

important people in their lives display anxiety under stress and they learn to do the same, thinking, “They get anxious when such things happen, I guess I should be anxious too!”

Anxious children often engage in something called catastrophizing, where their fears spiral out of control, “Oh no, this is going to happen and then it is going to lead to that, and then that and everything is going to fall apart and be terrible!”

However in the Playroom all of this including perfectionism, low self-esteem, shame, fear of reprimands and disapproval, an anxious example and catastrophizing all get turned around!

How does Play Therapy for anxiety work?

In the Playroom, I don’t tell the child what to do, he or she completely makes all of his own decisions and I follow him, showing great respect and validation for all of his expressed feelings, desires, decisions and needs. This gives the child an exhilarating sense of control over his own life and destiny, leading him to think, “I don’t have to be anxious that things are not going to turn out well. I have the power to make things go the way I want and need, to make things go right!” In this way, his or her anxiety gets reduced right off the bat.

Furthermore, I demonstrate for the child in the Playroom and attitude of complete acceptance, validation and non-evaluation.

In other words, no matter what the child does, I don’t judge or evaluate him, I simply reflect back a pure acceptance of how he chooses to create his own experience. This leads the child to think, “The things I do are Ok, I’m fine just the way I am.”

This all is accomplished through the curious Play Therapy for anxiety technique called tracking,

shutterstock_75667366.jpg

where, similar to a sportscaster describing a game, I reflect back to the child verbally every feeling or desire expressed, decision taken or accomplishment earned. For example, when a child picks up a toy to examine it, establish temporary ownership over it, and considers how he is going to play with it, this is important business for him in his world! Therefore I reflect back and enthusiastic , “Oh, now you’ve got that!” This direct, emotionally charged statement shows the child I am celebrating with him his great accomplishment of realizing and honoring his own desire, of controlling his own destiny, of putting into action his own plan to empower himself! This tracking is done constantly for every action, and the character of the verbal expression I make is personally tailored to suit perfectly each move and decision he makes. Over time it does wonders for building self-esteem, because the tracking gives him a criticism and evaluation-free opportunity to view himself in a positive light. By gaining a simple awareness of the uniqueness and special value of each individual aspect of his self as it develops in the playroom, the natural result is the conclusion that “I am doing just great the way I am. I do good things, I don’t need to worry, everything is going to be fine!”

To find out more about how Play Therapy works in general, click here.

Once a 7-year old girl was in the Playroom and a toy broke.

I didn’t try and help or control her, I let her decide what she wanted to do which was to try and fix it. I then reflected back to her a description of each step in her efforts to fix it without judging or evaluation. She eventually was successful in fixing it and exclaimed herself proudly, “I know how to fix things!” That was the creation of true self-esteem right there! Real self-esteem is esteem that needs to come from the self, not the other. If I praise and evaluate a child, she will gain unhealthy other-esteem. The goal of tracking is to get the child to evaluate him or herself, that creates true self-esteem.

For a fascinating discussion of how celebration is better than praise, click here.

shutterstock_586410551.jpg

Tracking reduces perfectionism,

as my constant reflection and acceptance shows the child that mediocre, less than perfect performance is just as good as better performance. He learns the beauty of the mundane, the liberation and joy of being just average. He learns that it is not objective, measurable achievement that has real value, but rather it is the honoring of his own desires, his appreciating the uniqueness of his own experience, including his moment to moment feelings and the simple everyday activities of the self, that has true value. Together with my interpersonal celebration of each decision, feeling and simple accomplishment, this greatly relieves any shame he may have been feeling, and drives up his self-confidence and self-esteem, leading him to no longer feel the pressure to achieve perfection and amazing accomplishments.

For a discussion of the benefits of Play Therapy for a child’s emotional health, click here.

Reprimands, criticism, scolding and disapproval, except in case of danger, are practically non-existent in the Playroom.

This gets the child into the habit of being so completely respected, honored, accepted and approved of, that it goes a long way to counterbalance the ill effects of any reprimands he may have received in the past. This greatly reduces his fear and anxiety regarding reprimands. In addition amazingly, it gets the child so used to being treated well that he begins to demand others also treat him likewise outside the session. Once I had an 8-year old who told his father, “Don’t talk to me that way, you need to play with me like Joseph!” The father to his credit took the hint and made changes to his son’s benefit.

99 percent of the time, no matter what the child does in the Playroom, whether he’s unsuccessful at something, accidentally breaks a toy, throws something or spills paint on the wall, my reaction is very relaxed and anxiety-free. Therefore he or she learns the great example, that many different things may happen in life, but there’s no need to get anxious, almost everything is really Ok! One time a 4-year old girl was in the car on the way to our session, and she misbehaved a bit, and her mother said, “Hey you better behave or I’m going to tell Joseph!” She responded, “Oh, Joseph, don’t worry about him, he won’t get angry, he likes me!” She had truly developed the confidence that from me she would get no problems, only good things.

This also reduces catastrophizing, as the child learns from the playroom that things generally have a positive end.

There are so many fantastic benefits of Child-Centered Play Therapy!

shutterstock_257505277.jpg

Not only does Play Therapy reduce anxiety, but is totally resolves behavior problems such as tantrums, anger and defiance, reduces symptoms of ADHD and even depression, and generates a wonderful parent-child relationship! In addition it is also my kind heart and all the boundless acts of kindness I bestow upon a child in the Playroom that promotes healing. It is my greatest joy to help a child!

Furthermore, I work with teachers to help reduce academic pressure coming from homework and school. I used to be a teacher and I know how to talk to them. I have gotten teachers to reduce to workload at times when necessary which reduces pressure and anxiety.

The power of Parenting!

There is much that parents can do at home to reduce anxiety in their child. The most important thing to remember is to try to not be anxious yourself, or more specifically not to express anxiety in front of the child. This prevents the child from learning an anxious reaction by example. You need to cultivate the value that “Everything is Ok just the way it is. We have no problems! Everything about you, my child, and almost everything you do is just fine!” Problems may arise, but we take them in stride! We react to them with cool, calm acceptance.

In addition, it pays to avoid criticism, reprimands, scolding and disapproval like the plague! Usually whatever benefit you hope to gain through these things is outweighed by the damage done to the child’s emotional health. It’s wiser to tolerate mischief and mistakes with a smile!

shutterstock_63241066.jpg

During Parenting Counseling, I gradually get to know parents and their child, and how the whole family works, and instead of giving so much direct advice, I help parents to develop their own innate wisdom which I am convinced every parent possesses. In this way I help them to develop their own personally tailored plan to resolve their child’s issue. A plan they developed themselves is one they are more likely to cherish and implement.

To find out how Parenting can help reduce ADHD symptoms, click here.

Play Therapy for anxiety, together with Parenting Counseling are the amazing double tools which can resolve almost any child’s anxiety, and most other issues as well!

To find out more about Child-Centered Play Therapy, click here.

Please be advised that the above represents a parenting ideal, and I don’t expect parents to be perfect. So have patience with yourself and try to adopt new ideas gradually.

***

Joseph Sacks is a child psychotherapist in lower Manhattan. He specializes in using Child-Centered Play Therapy to resolve behavior issues such as tantrums, defiance, anger and ADHD. It is amazing how well Play Therapy works to resolve these issues!

In addition Joseph helps parents to develop their own unique parenting approach to resolve their children’s issues. The parent-child relationship is the most important element in any child’s life, and by simply tuning up that relationship, we can have a tremendously beneficial effect. Joseph has written over 120 fascinating and well-researched articles on parenting and Play Therapy, which can be found at Tribecaplaytherapy.com.

No Comments
Categories : Anxiety, Child Development, Communication, Feelings, Parenting, Play Therapy, Reader Submissions
Tags : anxiety, family roles, feelings, Play Therapy, play therapy dolls, play therapy gams, play therapy intervention, play therapy toys

April Play Therapy Wrap-Up

Posted by Gary Yorke 
· May 2, 2017 
· No Comments

“Whoever wants to understand much must play much.” – Gottfried Benn (German physician 1886–1956)

Blog

Thanks to Clair Mellenthin for her submission about spring cleaning. Clearing out and letting go of physical, emotional, and mental baggage can make for a cleaner playroom and a happier you! Check out Clair’s tips to a happier, freer space here!

 

Articles

The Southern Sandtray posted 50 free sandtray directives! These are great ideas for building trays with a variety of topics and subjects. Try some or all of these directives with your clients.

The autism spectrum is very broad and interventions vary dramatically from child to child. two key factor that rings true for all intervention plans is: the earlier the better, and make it a team effort! All parties- parents, teachers, and treatment providers- must be in communication and working together to make the treatment effective. Consistency is key.

According to research done by researchers at the University of Rochester Mt. Hope Family Center and the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development, children benefit from their mother’s therapy. Research has shown that mothers with depression who participated in interpersonal psychotherapy became better at reading and understanding their toddler’s temperament, essentially making them better parents, while the toddlers became less fussy and angry, making them easier to parent. The relationship thrives which is better for mother and child’s development.

Some pediatricians  have started asking their young patients to complete a questionnaire about depression. Early detection of depression in children and teens is crucial to ensure that they receive the care and support they need. Childhood depression is much more common than healthcare professionals knew in previous years. It is important to recognition of mental illness as well as awareness for physicians to always question and screen for mental illness in their young patients.

 

 

No Comments
Categories : Child Development, Depression, Intervention Ideas, Monthly Wrap-Up, Wrap Up
Tags : development, family roles, feelings, mental health disorders, Play Therapy, play therapy intervention, therapy intervention

March Play Therapy Wrap Up

Posted by Gary Yorke 
· March 28, 2017 
· No Comments

girl spinning

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”

– Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry

 

Blog

Thanks to Leah Davies for the insights and tips into aggression in girls. Aggression, or bullying, with girls is often different than aggression in boys, as boys tend to cause physical harm, where aggression in girls manifests itself as covert or relational aggression. Relational aggression is when a  person uses manipulation to withhold friendship as a form of punishment, or creates problems within the relationships of others in an attempt to control or punish others. Because girls typically value their personal relationships with other girls, this type of bullying can be very damaging. Davies explains how schools and parents can increase awareness of the issue as well as prevent further bullying in the classroom.

Articles

Sandplay Therapy is a unique and effective tool for children in therapy. It’s a great resource for younger children who dont have the vocabulary to put into words how they are feelings. During sandplay therapy, chidlren and adults use various toys and objects to create a scene in their sandbox. The scene is then interpreted by the child’s therapist and talked about with the Child. “Through play, children work through many types of life lessons, conflicts and mysteries,” said  S. Sugatt, a licensed clinical social worker.

Arunima Basu’s article highlighting the symptoms and concerns for children who have been or are being abused. Some tale-tale signs of abuse in a child are isolation, lack of interest in usual activities, sleep disturbance, and chronic stress. Basu tells us that it is the responsibility of the family of the child to watch for the signs of abuse and communicate with the child so that they understand what inappropriate behavior is and can identify when it is happening to them.

Research has shown that childhood trauma can reshape the brain and behaviors of children. “Previously, what were labeled as behavioral and learning-related issues, such as non-compliance, learning disabilities, depression, oppositional disorder and even Attention Deficit Disorder, are undergoing a reexamination as the understanding of the effects of traumatic stress on a child’s brain grows,” said Theresa O’Neil of Second Wave Michigan. Rather than ask what is wrong with the child, we should be asking what happened, and how can we help.

Veronica Mackey also shared tips on how to stop bullying on campuses. Mackey introduced James Gavsie, an author, martial arts and bullying expert. According to Gavsie, without continuous support and instruction on the topic of bullying, schools will never see the changes needed. Gavsie provides insights and tips on how teachers and parents can stop bullying and implement programs at schools to keep bullying under control.

It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men. That is the motto of ToyBank, a company that has set up 277 toy libraries and game centers in Maharashtra. ToyBank understands the strong mental and social benefit children can have from playtime with peers. Board games and toys are used as tools to help children learn about academic subjects, such as math and reading, as well as learn about themselves and their own bodies and feelings. The games are determined based on the needs of the children. ToyBank does not use games that promote violence or lifestyle toys.

No Comments
Categories : Monthly Wrap-Up, Wrap Up
Tags : board games, development, family roles, feelings, games, mental health disorders, Play Therapy, sand tray miniatures, therapy intervention, therapy toys

Using the Sand Tray to Detect Family Roles

Posted by Gary Yorke 
· September 5, 2014 
· No Comments

Here’s another interesting article submitted by reader Martha Nodar on the subject of sand tray therapy. Ms. Nodar earned a gift certificate to childtherapytoys.com for her submission. Learn how you can do the same!

Bradshaw (1988) argues families are systems with systemic needs which are typically fulfilled, mostly unconsciously, by family members. These family members may become unwitting participants drawn into the family drama. In dysfunctional families triangles are common because they serve the purpose of providing a relief to the drama. In such cases, children and adolescents may unconsciously adopt roles within their family in order to survive their environment and help bring some balance to the scene. For instance, a so-called difficult child may be unconsciously acting-out the unspoken tensions within the parental dyad (Kerr & Bowen, 1988). Fairy tales have a way of representing these family dynamics in a way that is both nonthreatening and entertaining. Sandtray also provides a safe forum to give a voice to the unspoken.

Sandtray and Fairy Tales

Lowenfeld (1993) suggests children see the world around them as “stories” that can be represented in the “tray” (p. 16). Lowenfeld argues fairy tales are an effective way to access two worlds at the same time—a fantasy world and one’s internal world through the use of metaphors. Drawn by her experience, Lowenfeld contends that children may enjoy fairy tales because “the rules of life within it are magical and different altogether from those at home” (p. 16). Fairy tales serve a purpose in cognitive and emotional development by giving children an opportunity to make sense of their world. Below is a sandtray activity that may be used with fairy tales designed to help the play therapist uncover the roles children or adolescents and their families may be playing within their family system.

Detecting Family Roles in the Sand (sand tray activity)

image001

  • Have the sandplayers first choose one of their favorite fairy tales and select miniatures to represent the story. Any fairy tale may be represented
  • The above image represents the Cinderella story. Cinderella is portrayed to the right. She was the daughter of a loving father and later became a congenial stepdaughter despite the way she was treated. A female sandplayer who may have adopted the Good Daughter role may identify with Cinderella
  • A father and a young daughter are featured in the center of the tray symbolizing the relationship Cinderella had with her loving father, but also symbolizing the safety children feel when they grow up in a nurturing environment. Sandplayers who have or wish they had such a relationship may identify with this miniature
  • The birds surrounding Cinderella and the Prince symbolize friends and companions. There may be sandplayers who may identify with the Friend or Companion role to a sibling or even to a parent. A male sandplayer may identify with the role of the Rescuer within the family and may be drawn to the Prince miniature
  • The Queen miniature symbolizes the evil stepmother. She is surrounded by two leopards, one on each side representing her two daughters, Cinderella’s stepsisters. Sandplayers may perceive themselves or someone in their family to be playing the role of the Queen or Leopard
  • Ask the sandplayers: “What do you know or remember from reading about this character?” How the fairy tale actually unfolds is not as important as how the sandplayer may recall or experience the story
  • Give sandplayers the choice of representing themselves in the scene by either:
    • Adopting the role of one of the miniatures already in the scene, or
    • By bringing a new miniature into the tray. Then ask; “What would this character do or not do?” Stay with the metaphors
  • Has the story changed? What role is the sandplayer now playing? What could be deciphered by the location and sequence of the miniatures?
  • Let us assume the sandplayer might have brought wild animals fighting with each other into the fairy tale activity. In such case, Homeyer and Sweeney (2011) suggest this may qualify as “An Aggressive World,” (p. 41), which may illustrate the sandplayer’s internal fear to expressing anger within his or her family system
  • Give the sandplayer the option to remove any or all of the miniatures from the scene. Homeyer and Sweeney (2011) argue a sandtray is considered an “Empty World” if two thirds or more of the tray has no miniatures” (p. 40). Children who grow up in dysfunctional families where they may feel unheard may come to adopt the role of the Lost Child (Bradshaw, 1988). A Lost Child is likely to create an Empty World sandtray to reflect his or her role in the family

Discussion

Each family has its own traditions, language, culture and routine. The different roles family members may adopt are unconsciously created and implicitly manifested to maintain the status quo and hence, protect an innate and universal fear of abandonment from one’s tribe. The problem with adapting a role is that the role may not be consistent with one’s real Self, but rather a modified self that may have been acquired out of a need to survive one’s environment. Sandtray therapists may become the sandplayer’s fellow traveler, sharing the tools to cope with life’s circumstances and for developing a differentiated Self from those tied to the family system. The goal is not to detach from the family, but to detach from participating in the family drama by refusing to play the roles dictated by a closed family system. Sandplay is a therapeutic tool ideal for symbolic archetypical journeys through the safety of metaphors.

References

Bradshaw, J. (1988). Healing the shame that binds you. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications.

Homeyer, L., & Sweeney, D. (2011). Sandtray therapy (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Kerr, M., & Bowen, M. (1988). Family evaluation. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

Lowenfeld, M. (1993). Understanding children’s sandplay: Lowenfeld’s world technique. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Sussex Academic Press.

No Comments
Categories : Filial Therapy, Intervention Ideas, Reader Submissions, Sandplay/Sand Tray Therapy
Tags : family roles
PlayTherapyPage
Copyright © 2023 All Rights Reserved
iThemes Builder by iThemes
Powered by WordPress