Heidi Kaduson - The Playing Cure: Individualized Play Therapy for Specific Childhood Problems

THE PLAYING CURE

CHILD THERAPY SERIES

A SERIES OF BOOKS EDITED BY CHARLES SCHAEFER

Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy

Susan M. Knell

Play Therapy in Action: A Casebook for Practitioners

Terry Kottman and Charles Schaefer, Eds.

Family Play Therapy

Lois Carey and Charles Schaefer, Eds.

The Quotable Play Therapist

Charles Schaefer and Heidi G. Kaduson, Eds.

Childhood Encopresis and Enuresis

Charles Schaefer

The Therapeutic Powers of Play

Charles Schaefer, Ed.

Play Therapy Techniques

Donna Cangelosi and Charles Schaefer, Eds.

Children in Residential Care: Critical Issues in Treatment

Charles Schaefer and Arthur Swanson, Eds.

Therapeutic Use of Childs Play

Charles Schaefer, Ed.

Clinical Handbook of Sleep Disorders in Children

Charles Schaefer, Ed.

Clinical Handbook of Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents

Andrew R. Eisen, Christopher A. Kearney, and Charles Schaefer, Eds.

Practitioners Guide to Treating Fear and Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: Cognitive-Behavioral Approach

Andrew R. Eisen and Christopher A. Kearney

Words of Wisdom for Parents: Time-Tested Thoughts on How to Raise Kids

Charles Schaefer, Ed.

The Playing Cure: Individualized Play Therapy for Specific Childhood Problems

Heidi G. Kaduson, Donna Cangelosi, and Charles Schaefer, Eds.

101 Favorite Play Therapy Techniques

Heidi G. Kaduson and Charles Schaefer, Eds.

Individualized Play Therapy
For Specific Childhood Problems

Edited by

Heidi G. Kaduson
Donna Cangelosi
Charles E. Schaefer

The editors gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint excerpts from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. Copyright 1994 American Psychiatric Association.

A JASON ARONSON BOOK

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.

Published in the United States of America
by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowmanlittlefield.com

PO Box 317
Oxford
OX2 9RU, UK

Copyright 1997 by Jason Aronson Inc.
First Rowman & Littlefield Edition 2004

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The playing cure : individualized play therapy for specific childhood problems / [edited] by Heidi G. Kaduson, Donna Cangelosi, Charles E. Schaefer.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-0-7657-0021-6

1. Play therapy. 2. Child psychology. I. Kaduson, Heidi. II. Cangelosi, Donna M. III. Schaefer, Charles E.

[DNLM: 1. Play therapyin infancy & childhood. WS 350.2 P723 1996]

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

James M. Briesmeister

DArcy Lyness-Richard

Ris VanFleet

Jo Ann L. Cook

Donna M. Cangelosi

Janine S. Shelby

Pamela E. Hall

Heidi Gerard Kaduson

Neil Cabe

Heidi Gerard Kaduson

Helen E. Benedict and Lisa Binz Mongoven

James N. Bow

Terry Kottman

Index

Helen E. Benedict, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX.

James N. Bow, Ph.D.

Director of Psychiatry, Hawthorn Center and Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI.

James M. Briesmeister, Ph.D.

Staff psychologist at Family Development Service, Bloomfield Hills, MI; psycho-diagnostician and counselor for vocational rehabilitation for the state of Michigan; private practice, Shelby Township, MI.

Neil Cabe, M. Div., M.A.

Clinician, Rainbeau Northfield Counseling Center, Northfield Center, OH; private practice, Northfield Center, OH.

Donna M. Cangelosi, Psy.D.

Private practice, Teaneck, NJ.

Jo Ann L. Cook, Ed.D.

Private practice, Winter Park, FL.

Pamela E. Hall, Psy.D.

Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology, Pace University, New York City; private practice, Summit, NJ.

Heidi Gerard Kaduson, Ph.D.

Co-Director of Play Therapy Training Institute, Hightstown, NJ; private practice, Hightstown, NJ.

Terry Kottman, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Counseling, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA.

DArcy Lyness-Richard, Ph.D.

Clinical Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine, Director of Behavioral Medicine, The Reading Hospital and Medical Center, Reading, PA.

Lisa Binz Mongoven

Post-doctoral Fellow at Dallas Child Guidance Clinic, Dallas, TX.

Janine Shelby, Ph.D.

Director of Child Trauma Clinic, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA.

Ris VanFleet, RPT-S

President, VanFleet Associates Family Enhancement and Play Therapy Center, Mechanicsburg, PA.

Sigmund Freud described psychotherapy with adults as the talking cure since he believed verbal interaction between therapist and patient to be the main vehicle for therapeutic change. With children, however, the playing cure seems a more fitting description since young people interact with adults more readily vis--vis play behavior than through talk. Erik Erikson (1979) noted, To play it out is the most natural self-healing measure childhood affords (p. 475). Likewise, Haim Ginott (1994) wrote: Through the manipulation of toys, the child can show more adequately than through words how he feels about himself and the significant persons and events in his life (p. 33). Ginott proposed that A childs play is his talk and toys are his words (p. 33). Along the same line, Ruth Hartley (1994) wrote: To read the language of play is to read the hearts and minds of children (p. 37).

Play therapy is by no means a new school of thought. It has, in fact, been the most popular and widely used form of child therapy in the United States for at least fifty years. However, it has only been in recent times that clinicians and researchers in this field have looked at specific qualities inherent in play behavior that make it a therapeutic agent for change. Schaefer (1993) introduced a taxonomy in which he outlined fourteen therapeutic powers of play that have one or more curative functions. These therapeutic powers, often referred to as therapeutic factors, frequently overlap. The above table illustrates Schaefers therapeutic factors along with their likely benefits.