Playing for Keeps: Integrating Family and Play Therapy to Treat Reactive Attachment Disorder

Whole Family Theraplay: Integrating Family Systems Theory and Theraplay to Treat Adoptive Families

“…Training parents to be therapists for their children was a natural development of the Theraplay method. It is the parent, not the child's therapist, who must live with the child 24 hours a day; thus, the parent has the greatest opportunity to influence the child for good or ill. (Booth & Koller, 1998, p. 308) While FFPT, DDP, and Theraplay all have efficacy for working with adopted and foster children (Becker-Weidman, 2006;Booth & Jernberg, 2010;Hughes, 2007;Ryan & Madsen, 2007;Van Fleet, 1994;Van Fleet et al, 2005;Weir, 2007Weir, , 2011aWeir, , 2011b, Theraplay was chosen as the best model to integrate with family therapy models for three primary reasons: First, the directive nature of Theraplay is more conducive to the directive posture of classical family systems models (compared to FFPT). Due to the directive nature of many of the family systems models (particularly Structural Family Downloaded by [Umeå University Library] at 11:28 18 November 2014…”

“…Each approach contains numerous models of treatment that have a record of usefulness for a variety of clinical issues with which adoptive families present in clinical settings. For example, Structural Family Therapy (SFT), Bowenian Family Systems Therapy, Narrative Family Therapy, multiple Behavioral Family Therapy approaches including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and SolutionOriented Family Therapy have all had studies indicating that these models are effective in the systemic treatment of adoptive families (Barth, Crea, John, Thoburn, & Quinton, 2005;Becker, Carson, Seto, & Becker, 2002;Cattanach, 2008;Doherty & McDaniel, 2010;Nims & Duba, 2011;Timmer et al 2006;Weir, 2003Weir, , 2007Weir, , 2011aWeir, , 2011b. Additionally, multiple models of play therapy such as Filial Family Play Therapy (FFPT), Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), and Theraplay have been shown to be effective with adoptive families (Becker-Weidman, 2006;Booth & Jernberg, 2010;Hughes, 1997;Hughes, 2007;Ryan & Madsen, 2007;Van Fleet, 1994;Van Fleet, Ryan, & Smith, 2005;Weir, 2007Weir, , 2011aWeir, , 2011b.…”

“…Among the non-coercive attachment-based play therapies, Filial Family Play Therapy (FFPT), Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), and Theraplay have been the most studied (Becker-Weidman, 2006;Booth & Jernberg, 2010;Hughes, 1997Hughes, , 2007Rubin, Lender, & Mroz, 2009;Ryan & Madsen, 2007;Van Fleet, 1994;Van Fleet et al, 2005;Weir 2007Weir , 2011aWeir , 2011bWetting, Franke, & Fjordbak, 2006). Each of these three models warrants consideration in the treatment of adoptive and foster families.…”

“…Mostly, such focus on integration has had to do with family therapy theories in general (e.g., integrating SolutionOriented or Brief Family Therapy integrated with Strategic Family Therapy to form "Brief Strategic Family Therapy," Santisteban, Suarez-Morales, Robbins, & Szapocznik, 2006) and couples therapies in particular (e.g., Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy, Christensen, Jacobson, & Babcock, 1995; Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy [EFT], Johnson et al, 2005; and Collaborative Attachment Systems Therapy, Weir, 2012). Only recently have we seen a significant interest in integrating family therapy with play therapy models to develop more effective treatment approaches for families of all types regardless of their adoption status, in general (Dermer, Olund, & Sori, 2006;Early, 1994;Gil, 1994Gil, , 2006Gil & Sobol, 2000;Poole, 2006;Sori, 2006;Weir, 2011a;Wittenborn, Faber, Harvey, & Thomas, 2006) and for adoptive families, in particular (Cattanach, 2008;Gil, 2006;Weir, 2007Weir, , 2011a in the contemporary literature. The integration of family therapy and play therapy has wide practical applications for clinicians in the counseling, marriage and family therapy (MFT), psychology, and social work fields who specialize in working with adoptive families.…”

“…It is almost analogous to a "cognitive distortion" in which the child personalizes the consequences or punishment aspects of the behavior modification system in an exclusively relational way. They see the behavioral system through the "lens" or perspective of hurtful relationships and faulty attachments and therefore focus on the behaviorally imposed consequences and misattribute the punishment portions to relationship deficits rather than the need for changes in their behavior (Weir, 2011a(Weir, , 2011b. For example, an adopted or foster child with reactive attachment disorder who receives a consequence for misbehavior is more likely to think, "I hate my (foster) mom" instead of thinking "I shouldn't have done that" in response to their consequence.…”