Play therapy

The play therapy is a child psychoanalytic approach in 1920 by the psychoanalyst Hermine Hug-Hellmuth developed in the 1930s by Anna Freud and Melanie Klein was acquired and developed.

In play therapy, a patient is stimulated to heal through the method of play within a therapeutic process. Playing in this context promotes the patient and initiates a strengthening of the self.

Play plays a central role in a child's development . Following the so-called play instinct, children get to know themselves and their environment while playing with children , work creatively and develop their understanding of social roles . In play, the child finds the opportunity to express himself in a familiar, appropriate way, even in situations where he is not able to communicate through spoken language. In this way, playing can be used both therapeutically and diagnostically as access to the unconscious .

A distinction is made between directive and non-directive play therapy. In directive play therapy, the processes take place under the guidance and responsibility of the therapist ; in non-directive , management and responsibility are left to the child himself. The special form of focal play therapy (Giocoterapia Focale) for the treatment of eating disorders and elimination disorders in small children was developed by the Gestalt psychologist and psychoanalyst Giancarlo Trombini and his colleagues at the University of Bologna from the 1970s .

In the branch therapy , the parents are trained on how to play with their child at home and how to communicate with him through the language of the game on one level of action. You will learn how to react empathically to the feelings of your child and how you can help your child to achieve more self-control and self-efficacy.

Web links

Wiktionary: Game therapy  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Alexander von Gontard, Gerd Lehmkuhl : Play therapy - psychotherapy with play as the medium: I. General introduction, psychoanalytic and client-centered approaches. In: Practice of child psychology and child psychiatry . Volume 52, Issue 1, 2003, pp. 35-48. PMID 12638367 .
  • Review (German): Overview of traditional forms of play therapy with a focus on: Individual therapy by Alfred Adler , analytical psychotherapy by Carl Gustav Jung , sand play therapy by Dora M. Kalff, patient-centered non-directive play therapy.

literature

• Kevin J. O'Connor, Charles E. Schaefer, Lisa D. Braverman (Eds.): Handbook of Play Therapy. John Wiley, Hoboken (New Jersey) 2016, ISBN 978-1-118-85983-4 .
• Virginia M. Axline, Ruth Bang (translation): Children's play therapy in the non-directive method. Reinhardt, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-497-02598-5 .

swell

1. ↑ see the references in Giancarlo Trombini , especially Trombini 2006 and 2007, and Elena Trombini 2010, Il cibo rifiutato , Bologna: Pendragon.