Play in the Treatment of Adolescents

Abstract

I propose a view of the treatment process with adolescents which places interactive play at the center. The adolescent plays by creating a highly charged interpersonal drama with the analyst to work out specific developmental conflicts. These conflicts involve struggles for greater autonomy and the formation of a solid sense of identity in the face of regressive pulls. The analyst unwittingly is taken up in the play and uses his or her sense of involvement as material for interpretation to further the play or resolve periods of strain when play falters.

Supervision can be playful, too: Play therapy techniques that enhance supervision.

“…Play is a unique activity, facilitating the integration of the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral experience of the supervisee (Addenbrooke, 1997). Multiple meanings of the symbolic expression can emerge, and developmental conflicts get processed and resolved within supervision (Markman, 1997), with play serving as a catalyst to the supervisees’ development. Sutherland and Bonwell (1996) suggested that “students are simply more likely to internalize, understand, and remember material learned through active engagement in the learning process” (p. 3).…”

Book Reviews

“…(p. 28) Levenson (1972Levenson ( , 1983 describes the same process of becoming trapped and immersed to be able to observe from outside the therapeutic interaction toward helping the patient become aware of his/her patterns of relating. From Markman's (1997) view of enactment, Sherman's refusal to play the passive mother role that his patient Rich (Chapter 4) assigned to him, leads to the emergence of Sherman's feeling of not being masculine enough. Sherman's enactment of fighting back leads to his eventual insight: "I was finally defending myself from all faggot-baiting boys of my childhood and adolescence" (p. 46).…”

Piloting PlayWrite: Feasibility and Efficacy of a Playwriting Intervention for At-Risk Adolescents

“…Second, play and drama therapies are widely used in the treatment of children and adolescents-particularly those with histories of disadvantage and trauma (Haen & Weil, 2010;Markman, 1997;McArdle, Ferrer-Caja, Hamagami, & Woodcock, 2002;Novy, 2003;Slusky, 2004;Wilson & Ryan, 2002), but these therapies are insufficiently evaluated. Proponents of these methods have argued that the symbolic play (i.e., the use of external objects or characters to represent internal experiences) core to both methods is more effective in alleviating young people's traumatic memories compared with purely verbal approaches, especially for those with avoidance symptoms, as this population often resists more traditional forms of talk therapy (Nader & Pynoos, 1991).…”