(e.g., attention, power, revenge, inadequacy); the Crucial Cs (i.e., courage, capable, connect, and count); and personality priorities (i.e., pleasing, comfort, superiority, and control; Kottman & Meany-Walen, 2016, 2018). of therapy, the Adlerian play therapist develops a conceptualization and treatment plan that guides the rest of the process.
The third phase is designed to help clients gain insight into their patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. In this phase, the counselor uses mostly directive techniques with a special emphasis on custom-designed stories and metacommunication to enhance clients’ understanding of themselves and others.
The fourth phase, reorientation and reeducation, consists of a combination of therapist-directed activities intended to teach a variety of skills including problem solving, communication, anger and anxiety management, and metacommunication designed to teach and reinforce the client’s constructive patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Consulting with parents (and teachers) is an essential element of AdPT that supports any changes children might make in the process, and it unfolds in parallel to the individual work with children.
Therapy Goals and Progress Measurement In general, the goals of Adlerian play therapy are for clients to (a) feel more connected to others and be able to interact with others in prosocial ways; (b) develop and practice more positive ways for belonging and and inferiority in healthier ways; (d) recognize patterns of self-defeating beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors and shift them to more constructive patterns; and (e) notice when they are stuck in feeling inferior and develop coping strategies to address this (Kottman & Meany-Walen, 2016, 2018). Because Adlerian play therapists custom-design their treatment plans and presenting problem, the underlying dynamics of clients’ interpersonal and intrapersonal struggles, and they focus on the client’s strengths. Depending on the client’s lifestyle assessment, therapists may choose interventions to help clients become aware of the choices they have in behavior (addressing goals of misbehavior), shift feelings of inferiority (e.g., by fostering the crucial Cs), or become aware of relational styles that undermine their social connectedness and practice new styles.
Therapeutic Powers of Play Depending on the client, the Adlerian play therapist may use any number of Schaefer and Drewes’s (2014) therapeutic powers of play. Throughout the phases of therapy and through the intentional application of directive and non-directive techniques, the Adlerian play therapist may apply any and all of these powers. In AdPT, there is a special emphasis on: facilitating clients’ self-expression by exploring the child’s lifestyle; accessing the unconscious by helping children gain insight into their lifestyle; creatively problem solving through interventions designed to reorient and reeducate the child; and building resilience, self-regulation, and self-esteem through interventions that foster the Crucial Cs. By using direct and indirect interventions with clients, the Adlerian play therapist activates many of the therapeutic powers of play.
Summary AdPT is the application of Adlerian principles through directive and non- directive play interventions that facilitate positive change in clients in fun ways for play therapists and for clients. Because they get to be themselves in the playroom and have a theoretically consistent way of guiding the process, Adlerian play therapists have access to their own set of super powers: “Go confront the problem! Fight! Win! And call me when you get back, darling. I enjoy our visits” (Disney, n.d., “Edna Mode,” The Incredibles).
References Adler, A. (1958). What life should mean to you. New York, NY: Capricorn. (Original work published in 1931)
Carlson, J., & Englar-Carlson, M. (2017). Adlerian psychotherapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Corey, G. (2017). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.
Disney. (n.d.). Words are useless... unless they come from Edna Mode. Retrieved from
https://ohmy.disney.com/movies/2013/08/25/words- are-useless-unless-they-come-from-Edna-Mode/
Kottman, T., & Ashby, J. (2015). Adlerian play therapy. In D. Crenshaw & A. Stewart (Eds.)., Play therapy: A comprehensive guide to theory and practice (pp. 32-47). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Kottman, T., & Meany-Walen, K. (2016). Partners in play: An Adlerian approach to play
Counseling Association.
Kottman, T., & Meany-Walen, K. (2018). Doing play therapy: From building the relationship to facilitating change. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Schaefer, C. E., & Drewes, A. A. (Eds.). (2014). The therapeutic powers of play: 20 core agents of change (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Terry Kottman, PhD, LPC-S, NCC, RPT-S, LMHC, is the original author and developer of Adlerian Play Therapy and the founder of The Encouragement Zone, where she provides play therapy training and supervision. She is a recipient of numerous awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Play Therapy.
tkottman@cfu.net
Jeff Ashby, PhD, ABPP, RPT-S, is a Professor in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services at Georgia State University and the Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Stress, Trauma, and Resilience.
jashby2@gsu.edu
therapy (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: American
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