Create an environment that is inherently safe and nonconsequentialĬontemporary psychodynamic theories also see play therapy as encompassing the following defining elements (Meersand & Gilmore, 2017):.Engage and immerse children fully despite awareness that it is pretend. Have an inherent “behaving as-if” quality.Uniquely combine physical action with mental fantasy or role-play.When play therapists refer to “pretend play” (including fantasy, imaginative, dramatic, and make-believe), they are typically describing circumstances that (Meersand & Gilmore, 2017): Rather than more formal approaches, such as exploratory skill practice, play engages the intentional projection of the child’s mental representation onto reality while remaining aware that it is a pretense. More recently, research has seen play therapy as a powerful tool in treating children, offering a medium for communication, relationship building, and therapeutic action. 437).Įarly on, psychoanalysts were quick to recognize play as an opportunity to drive wish fulfillment, assimilate reality, and master developmental anxieties (Meersand & Gilmore, 2017). It involves “transforming passive experience into active mastery modulating intense affects making meaning of emotionally laden events trying on others’ perspectives and sampling roles and identifications” (Meersand & Gilmore, 2017, p. Play and other symbolic functions emerge during the early phases of child development, including narrative language and mentalization. “As an organically emerging capacity, play represents a natural mode of self-expression and an ideal medium for communicating and building relationships with children between ages 3 and 8 or so” (Meersand & Gilmore, 2017, p.
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