The Handbook of Jungian Play Therapy with Children and Adolescents by Eric J. Green

Author:Eric J. Green [Green, Eric J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JHUP
Published: 2014-10-16T03:00:00+00:00

Jungian Play Therapy Approaches to Promote Secure Attachment

Although attachment relationships are thought to be relatively stable over time (Allan, 1988), they are indeed revisable within the context of new relationships. For many adolescents who enter play therapy, their experiences of empathy have been limited or disrupted in their early relationships (Green, Crenshaw & Langtiw, 2009). Thus, play therapy affords adolescents an opportunity to experience a secure, close relationship with a caring individual in which empathy, nonjudgmentalism, and permissiveness are hallmarks of the therapeutic alliance. Indeed, research has found that the value of the therapeutic relationship is greater than the value of specific interventions utilized in play therapy for youth and improves the quality of future relationships (Green, Crenshaw & Langtiw, 2009).

It is critically important that play therapists demonstrate their dependability early in treatment, through empathic attunement (listening carefully and empathizing accurately within the adolescents’ phenomenological perspective) and containment of distress with clear boundaries (Reyes et al., 2010). Nichole shared with her therapist that some of the most memorable and successful sessions were those in the first few months, during which the play therapist simply sat with her while she expressed difficult emotions through her artwork and sandplay scenes. She told the play therapist that, over time, she felt less ashamed of her feelings and less afraid that the play therapist would think she was “weak” or “crazy.” This view of a secure Self, which manifested itself in her relationships with peers, parents, and siblings, is largely what caused her self-injurious behaviors to desist. It was after she developed trust within the therapeutic relationship that she was able to begin containing her own emotions. During one particularly powerful session, Nichole engaged in an imagery-based containment exercise in which she visualized a safe and secure place where a container with a lock was located. The play therapist utilized guided imagery, accompanied by relaxation music, followed by an artistic exercise in which Nichole would creatively and abstractly paint the emotions felt throughout the imagery exercise. Following this session, Nichole regularly referred to her container and the way she felt safe to open it during her play therapy sessions.

From the beginning of the relationship, play therapists offer insecurely attached clients an opportunity to openly work through difficult feelings of disillusionment and abandonment through the consistency and dependability of the therapist and the therapeutic framework. That is, play therapists demonstrate unconditional congruence, empathy, and predictability in their words and actions. Further, it is the play therapist’s responsibility to regularly explore and resolve anxieties within the transference and the client’s experience of it. An example of this occurred with Nichole when her play therapist vacationed at the time period that paralleled her high school’s final exams. Nichole expressed her resentment about feeling abandoned by the play therapist and her worries that the play therapist might not return from the vacation. Nichole created a sand world where she enacted a symbolic scene with magic stones and fairy princesses similar to what was occurring in her psyche regarding feeling let down that her therapist was vacationing during her finals.

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