ECOSYSTEMIC Play Therapy | KEVIN O’CONNOR, PHD, ABPP, RPT-S AND CLAUDIA VEGA, PHD
Play Therapy. EPT creatively addresses two important factors, which make psychotherapy with children different from psychotherapy with adults. Unlike adults, children undergo very rapid developmental changes. To be effective, therapists must both adapt to and promote these changes. Also, unlike adults, children are largely dependent on the systems in which they are embedded and, therefore, must rely on others to get their needs met. To address these differences, EPT draws on multiple theories, including psychoanalytic, object relations, attachment, cognitive, behavioral, family systems, and developmental, as well as multiple therapy models, including Theraplay® (Booth & Jernberg, 2010) and reality therapy (Glasser, 1975). EPT focuses “on designing interventions to ensure that children’s needs are consistently and appropriately met” (O’Connor & Braverman, 2009, p. xv). Although, commonly mislabeled a “directive” approach, EPT incorporates a wide variety of interventions ranging from minimally structured, child-led sessions to highly structured and targeted therapist-led interventions such as systematic desensitization or stress inoculation.
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Basic Tenets EPT therapists adhere to six basic tenets: 1. They maintain an ecosystemic perspective at all times, conducting a comprehensive, multi-systemic intake prior to initiating treatment (O’Connor & Ammen, 2013).
2. Early in the intake/treatment process, they assess the child’s developmental functioning across dimensions.
information to inform the case conceptualization and treatment plan (O’Connor, 2016).
4. Because children learn and develop best when optimally aroused, EPT therapists assume responsibility for managing the child’s level of arousal during each session and throughout treatment.
32 | PLAYTHERAPY September 2019 |
www.a4pt.org
cosystemic play therapy (EPT) is a meta-theoretical, integrative approach developed in the late 1980s by Dr. Kevin O’Connor, co-founder of the Association for
varies dramatically, as does each child’s ability to self-regulate, the therapist intervenes and structures the session only when, and as much as necessary, to promote the child’s ongoing growth and development.
5. They recognize that the therapist-child relationship is a necessary also develop a solid working alliance with the child by directly engaging him or her in setting the treatment goals. These goals are worded in terms of the needs the child would like to have met (e.g., spend less time being angry or spend more time having fun). Once developed, these goals are revisited at least once during every session to ensure the child knows the therapist is continuously focused on bettering the quality of his or her life.
6. They assume an advocacy role to ensure the various systems are meeting the child’s needs as best they can. To whatever extent possible, the therapist works to activate systems as opposed to intervening directly. That is, the therapist works to support parents opposed to intervening directly with the child’s school.
EPT promotes active,
developmentally grounded interventions that engage children in problem solving
Psychopathology and Client Dysfunction met and/or the inability to get one’s needs met in ways that do not substantially interfere with the ability of others to get their needs met responsible behavior. Children’s symptoms are understood to reflect their best effort to get their needs met in the absence of the ability
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