Exploring the use of Self in Child Therapy

1. Exploring the use of Selfin Child Therapy • CCPA Annual Conference • Calgary, AB • May 26, 2012 • Presenter: Don Chafe • don_chafe@hotmail.com

2. Child Therapy • Children have internal psychological processes. • These processes can be explored and altered in the therapeutic relationship. • This workshop will focus on the Self in these therapeutic relationships.

3. Child Therapy • An analogy can be made between a child struggling with emotional difficulties and a child struggling to learn to swim. • Our response to the child's struggle is based on who we are and how we conceptualize the situation

4. Child Therapy • Expressive therapies • Use non-verbal pathways such as art, music, dance, and play to facilitate change • While talk may take place during these activities it is the process of the activity that is therapeutic

5. Child Therapy • Most children readily engage in play. • Play is believed to be the natural language of childhood. • Children (and often adults) may lack the verbal ability to describe inner experience. • Play taps “magical thinking” ability.

6. Projective techniques • Are often used by psychologists and psychiatrists in evaluation and diagnosis • Are usually well researched and normed • Usually require specialized training to properly administer • Can be used by counsellors to generate a “soft hypothesis” or a “self hypothesis”

7. Projective techniques • Examples of “self hypothesis” • “If a friend of yours make a drawing like this and showed it to you, what guesses would you make about how the are feeling”? • “In your drawing you have included big sharp teeth and massive claws. As you look at it now, what does it make you think of”?

8. Projective techniques • Example of “soft hypothesis” • “Some of the books I've read on drawing people say that if you leave out the hands, you feel out of touch and unable to influence your world. Is that accurate for you or does it miss the mark?”

9. Self In Gestalt therapy Self is defined against non-self Increasingly refined and reflective experiences lead to the discovery of Self

10. Self Contact boundaries Differentiate the Selffrom the non-self Exploring / setting these boundaries is the focus of therapy and learning for both child and therapist

11. Self Selfis a subjective experience of contact boundaries Selfis separated from non-self by experience and exploration

12. More info • Canadian Association for Child and Play Therapy (CACPT) • www.cacpt.com • Play Therapy International • www.playtherapy.org