Fabiola J Archila

HUS 4319

Play Therapy

Written Assignment

02/01/22

Im focusing on Child Centered Play Therapy which was covered in Chapter 3 of

our book. Child centered play therapy is based off of Carl Rogers’s approach in

Person Centered Therapy. His close peer Virginia Axline took parts of Rogers

theories and implemented them into use in children. This therapeutic system uses empowerment

in the playroom and encourages self guided change from children. This method is non-directive

from the therapist. This means that although the therapist can give activities be present during the

process they can’t directly intervene with what the child is doing in their play and the interaction

between them and the parents. This method works because in this theory it is believed that the

child is in a constant journey of self actualization. As a therapist working with this kind of play

therapy it’s important to believe in the child’s capacity of who they can become rather than who

they have been. As with other therapies a relationship built on empathy and trust between client

and therapist is crucial to having a child open up to you and as a result grow as an individual.

The three main structures of “child centered theory of development” are “Person” “Phenomenal

Field” and “Self”. The Person which encompasses the child’s behaviors, feelings and physical

being and it is described as the child feeling the world changing constantly with the child being

in the middle of all of the changes. In continuation, the Phenomenal Field describes everything

the child is experiencing whether they are conscious of it or not this is the way that they view

life; the way that they view life affects their personal reality. Rogers says that in order to

understand behaviors that we should be able to understand the child’s perception of reality and as

therapist we should avoid judging the child unless we’re able to look at the situation through

their eyes. Lastly we look at The Self, this is the third structure in this theory of development. In

the self children receive stimuli from their environment and consequently begin differentiating
and developing in their own world as “me” in relation to the environment. Overall, as a result of

these structures the child’s behavior therefore can be consistent with their concept of self . With

this form of therapy the worlds goal and cure are not consistent with the philosophy and are

avoided because the child is seen as a person to be understood rather than someone to be cured.

When being evaluated a child’s accomplishments are judged by an external person and not the

child themselves…So how do we measure reliability and growth? Well, the child is constantly

developing and they are capable of determining their own change within therefore the child must

be the judge of their individual growth. They are to base it on their own internal frame of

reference; in self-actualization we want to see increased congruence between the child’s

experience and the way they think of themselves, the changes that we can see from these

attitudes is the child being less defensive and open to more experiences and accepting of others.

A child can be more capable of self direction and because of that feel more confident and feel

overall empowered in the making of his own decision rather than having someone tell them what

is good and what is not.

In my case study I'm observing a six-year-old child named Rachel who’s had some behavioral

abnormalities once being adopted out of the foster case system and we have decided to take the

child centered approach on them and make a plan that is focused on “Rachel" rather than her

behavior.

Therapist: hello Rachel it's so nice to meet you

Rachel:*shyly* hi
Therapist: Rachel this is our play room. I have all these toys here that you can play with and
YOU can choose how you want to play with them
Rachel: *looks around the room quickly focusing on a baby doll* *walks over and cradles doll*
Therapist: looks like you found something to play with. You can play with her however you’d
like
Rachel* begins getting comfortable and cuddles the baby and pretends to feed*
Therapist : I see that you're feeding the baby and taking care of it
Rachel: yeah she’s a good girl * continues playing pretend and feeding the baby but then she
drops the spoon*
Rachel:* angry* eat your food don’t waste it!! *knocks baby doll out of chair*
Therapist: I see that made you angry why did you throw the baby?
Rachel: because she made a mess *pouting* now she is a bad girl and has to go in time out
Therapist: okay so she’s going in time out
Rachel: yeah and now she won’t do it again and we can keep playing
Therapist: it sounds sad that she’s on time out what if it was an accident ?
Rachel: yeah… I have accidents sometimes
Therapist: so you know how it feels to make a mistake and have a time out?
Rachel: yes but SHE did it on purpose ( internalized thought that adults around her have told her
that she knows what she’s doing and all her accidents were on purpose)
Therapist: I hear you

Usually the sessions are conducted over a series of weeks typically once a week for 11-20 weeks.

With progress being made overtime getting the child comfortable with the play, conversation and

therapist. The therapist can facilitate this by being empathetic, understanding and mirroring the

child so they feel understood. I think child centered therapy would be best for Rachel because

she has gone through a lot in the foster care system and children don't have bad intentions

naturally but are products of their environment and the people around them and I feel like

encouraging her to make her own decisions and understand her behaviors would help her make

better choices.