Game Therapy - A Solution for Children

In this world of violence, the most vulnerable creatures are perhaps the children. They have not yet acquired the ability to discern between right and wrong, and they are much less analytical when it comes to their living conditions, to different circumstances and often difficulties they have to deal with. And since parents are ever busier, trying to earn a living and focusing on the material aspects of their lives rather than what actually goes on with their children and their fragile minds, children may fall victims to different unpleasant situations that can result in traumas they are likely to carry along with them sometimes even all the way to adulthood. The thing is, children tend to be very emotional and to associate certain things, activities, persons, and places with certain feelings, be them positive or negative, depending on the harm these elements may actually bring to them. The problem is, you cannot really make a child speak to you openly about his problems, since verbal communication is not their major type of expression. Children like to express themselves through the games they play.

Playing means to kids what speaking means to grown-ups. It is a good environment for them to express their feelings, to explore human relationships, to confess their wishes, describe their very own experiences, and to achieve a feeling of fulfillment.

Children's problems are generally of an inside nature, they do not exit outside themselves. In the process of growing up, many of the children's problems are related to the fact that grown-ups are incapable to understand and actually respond to what the child is feeling or trying to communicate. This "communication gap" is expanded by the persistence with which adults try to convince their children to adopt the means of communication employed by grown-ups. In order for children to communicate verbally, they need a more developed skill to express themselves, and therefore they may find it rather intimidating, uncomfortable and restrictive to communicate in such manner.

Children best respond to action and activities, which are their primary preoccupations, and because of that game therapy can enable the therapist to enter the child's world. Games help children tell adults what exactly has happened, revealing their experiences and the feelings associated by the children to these experiences. If the child was taken to therapy due to his aggressive behavior, the playing environment provided by the therapist can offer the opportunity to experiment aggression so while the child is hitting a doll or trying to shoot the therapist with a toy gun, he can also learn self-control using the proper therapeutic procedures for defining his limits.

Given the opportunity to externalize their feelings and needs, children will do it in a manner similar to the adults'. Although the dynamic of expression and the means of communication are different for the children, the expressions (fear, anger, satisfaction, joy, frustration, contentment) are similar to those of the adults. Children may encounter serious difficulties in expressing what they feel or how their experiences have affected them. However, if they are left in the presence of a caring, sensitive and empathic grown-up person, they are likely to reveal their inner feelings through toys and through the materials they choose, through what they do with them or how they play with them, as well as through the stories they interpret. The game therapy process can be seen as a relationship between the child and the therapist, in which the child uses the game in order to explore his personal world and to realize the contact with the therapist in a way which ensures the child's safety. Game therapy gives the child the opportunity to externalize, by playing games, his experiences and the feelings associated to them. This process allows the therapist to experiment, in a personal, interactive manner, the dimensions of the child's inner universe. This therapeutic relationship ensures a dynamic therapeutic relationship together with the child's healing.

In order for the game therapy to have good results, the therapists must necessarily be specialists in this field. Apart from their university psychology studies, ideally they should follow an MA in the field of child psychology and to have therefore knowledge on the subject of game therapy for children.