II: Stages of Creative Play Therapy
Creative Play Therapy is distinct from traditional talk therapy, so the process looks different. Yet, while there is tremendous variability from individual to individual, the stages of the process are remarkably predictable. While the chapters in this section will describe the overall therapeutic process, you will also likely see clients progress through these stages quickly, sometimes in just one session. When that happens, it usually resolves the specific issue, but the client may cycle through the stages multiple times before resolving a Core Need. For example, in one session, a client may work on a triggering event that happened recently, and after the session, his or her response to that situation changes, but more work still needs to be done on the Core Need that led to the symptom that caused distress.
Because this process can move very quickly, it is essential to understand the importance and purpose of each stage so that the therapist knows when to slow things down. Check in with clients when in doubt. They are the experts on themselves, and sometimes you will not know without asking.
Although based on the nondirective client-centered approach, when working with adults, prompts can be helpful to facilitate the nondirective work. We will talk about when, if and how to prompt in each phase. We’ll also suggest a sample creative technique that is appropriate for each phase.
The Creative Play Therapy approach has seven phases which are displayed in Figure 0.2.
Figure 0.2 Overview of Stages of Creative Play Therapy
Warm Up
6
Figure 6.1 Stages of Creative Play Therapy
Now that we have laid the groundwork for Creative Play Therapy - establishing our theoretical lens, developmental understanding and some basic skills - we are ready to expand on the stages of the process. The very first stage of any counseling relationship is the warm-up stage. Before you can do meaningful work together, you need to get to know each other and build a trusting professional relationship. Clients who have been hurt may naturally be cautious about trusting others, or they may have poor boundaries and trust too easily, and move through this stage too quickly. At any point if you experience any damage to the therapeutic working relationship, come back to this stage. The Warm Up lays the foundation for and weaves through every other stage.
The first few minutes of every session should also start with a warm up. It helps your client ease into the work with you. If you have been working together for a while, then the client probably has experience with the deep work of this approach, but they need a few minutes to warm up to get themselves ready.
Warm Up develops the healthy, safe relationship needed to do the deep work on core issues. This is not something you check off so you can get to doing therapeutic work. This is the work. During this phase, you are modeling healthy relationship skills, including repairing the relationship when needed. If you spend an entire six sessions warming up with a client, that may be the very work that is needed for that client. If a client is not truly able to do deep work, even when he says that he would like to do it, then he will not be able to do it. It may not be a safe time for him yet, and it may not have anything to do with the therapist. More about this in Chapter 13. Of course, all of this assumes that the therapist is skilled and prepared to facilitate the process, and that the therapist is genuinely trustworthy.
