Game Therapy for Children

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.

The problems children may come across do not exist outside themselves. Thus, game therapy actually accounts for the dynamic inner structure of the child.

In the process of growing up, many problems are actually caused by the adults' incapacity to understand or to really respond to what the child feels or tries to communicate to them.

This "communication gap" is enlarged by the grown-ups' persistent stress on teaching children to simply adopt the ways of expression typical for adults. That is why the children's efforts to express themselves only verbally require a quite developed capacity to express oneself in that manner, which limits and confines little ones to a rather uncomfortable, restrictive environment.

Because children belong to a world of action and activity, game therapy gives the therapist the possibility to enter this world. The child has no obstacles in telling what happened to him/her. While playing, the child in fact lets out past experiences and the feelings associated to them. If, for instance, a child was brought to the therapist because of his/her aggressive behavior, the doctor can explore the child's aggression, while the child hits a doll or tries to shoot the therapist with a toy-gun, and he can also teach the child to defend himself/herself using therapeutic methods within established limits.

When given the opportunity, children may express their feelings and needs in ways similar to those of the adults. Although the dynamics of expression and the way of communicating differ in children, the things they express (fear, satisfaction, anger, joy, frustration, contentment) are quite similar to the adults'. Children may find it extremely difficult to say what they feel or how the lived experiences affected them. But when they are left with a caring adult, a sensitive person, showing empathy and patience, children can actually develop their inner emotions by means of toys or other materials that children choose themselves, by how they handle those toys and materials or how they play with them, by the stories they interpret.

The process of game therapy can be regarded as a relationship between child and therapist, established in an environment that the child feels is secure for him/her. This process is meant to allow the therapist to experience, in a personal and interactive manner, the dimensions of the child's inner world. This therapeutical relationship ensures a dynamic development and also the child's healing. So it is very important to understand that one should lower oneself to the child's level in order to reach the child's mind and solve the problems the little one has encountered in his or her journey towards maturity.

The future therapists should have proper preparation. Child therapy is extremely difficult, so it requires a lot of knowledge of child psychology, and a lot of experience in order to get proper results. Not everyone can treat a child, because of their obstinate refusal to open up the painful topics, to show their inner life and express the things that caused their traumas. And these traumas may develop just like a regular disease, growing up with the child, until maturity. So it is easier and more advisable to treat such problems when they first appear. Anyway, most child therapists also have a master degree in childcare or child counseling, psychology or social work, although there are more subjects in this field.

A basic requirement would be a master degree, with a stress on the clinical or counseling aspects of the therapeutical relationship. In order to complete such a programme, one should have a special preparation concerning child development and also counseling abilities, including a theoretical preparation regarding the changes of behavior typical for the game therapy type of method in use. The study programme should include a wide knowledge of game therapy and also a lot of assisted practice of the game therapy for children.

The idea is, that it actually works for children.It is easier to pull the oak while it is only 2 inches tall…but when it reaches maturity, you will surely need a whole crew to remove it from the yard! So, the sooner, the better!