Dr. John Levy's relationship therapy as applied to a play group.

Abstract

T H E JULY (1938) issue of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY carried a symposium on "play therapy" which raises many questions concerning the place of such "therapy" in psychiatry. In the symposium Dr. Lippman refers to the search for a method which shall supply a "short-cut (from psychoanalysis) to the anxieties of the individual." He regrets that none of such attempts has so far been successful. The late Dr. John Levy had developed a technique he called Relationship Therapy which is a short-cut, and which offers every expectation of success.'Dr. Levy's Relationship Therapy is in harmony with that concept of therapy which Dr. Allen describes in the symposium as "growth process arising from the unique nature of the relation" between therapist and patient. Through experience, Relationship Therapy has become crystallized-enough so that it can be taught and used consistently by others. Yet it remains highly flexible and sensitive to individual differences in both patient and therapist. Dr. Levy and several workers under his supervision at The Child Guidance Centre of the Brooklyn Juvenile Protective Association applied Relationship Therapy to children, using free playas a medium of expression. Here we have, then, a technique for "play therapy" for which Helen Ross expresses a need in the symposium. It seems timely, therefore, to describe this technique and to show how it answers some of the questions raised in the symposium. I would like to do this by giving an account of an "experiment" of my own in applying Dr. Levy's Relationship Therapy to a preschool summer play group.Brief Description of Therapy To Be Used. It is necessary briefly to survey the fundamental principle of relationship therapy before we begin. The details of its techniques as applied to a group will appear in the course of the paper. In the therapy the pivotal factor upon which all movement depends is the "interpretation" of the relationship between the patient and the therapist.t It is based on the 1 A group of psychologists whom Dr. Levy trained at The Child Guidance Centre of the Brooklyn Protective Association are about to publish sufficient material to justify this statement. The present account will also demonstrate certain tangible results. Permanence of such results must of course be judged on the basis of the followup records.2 Dr. Levy was about to publish an account of Relationship Therapy. His followers will attempt to carry ou t his plans.a The way this is handled is that the therapist instead of responding to the factual material the patient brings him, tries to sense the significance of this in terms of the feeling behind it. For example, the patient may bring out a barrage of specific questions such as "How can I keep Johnny from biting his nails." The therapist does not answer in a factual way by making suggestion, but treats the questions as symptoms of the often urgent need behind them. He may say, (if the patient speaks defiantly) "You want to put me on the spot today." Or (if the patient seems to be annoyed at the impers...

The academic department.

“…As time went by and as clinic teams gained skill and experience, psychologists began to conduct individual therapy with parents and children. Soon therapy groups were started, one of the early ones by psychologist Helen Durkin ( 1939).…”

New trends in clinical procedures and psychotherapy.

“…Durkin (32) and Gabriel (36) have described very encouraging experiments with group therapy. Durkin gave the children great freedom, but interpreted their behavior to them.…”

Selection of mothers for group therapy.

“…Our group treatment is an outgrowth of individual "relationship therapy"' as conceived by the late Dr. John Levy (1). Applying this type of therapy to mothers' groups grew out of using it with children (2), and also because of the need to treat more patients with our limited staff.…”