networking of all organismic functions so that the child’s basic physical, developmental, social, emotional, and intellectual needs/ wants are understood and organized. Integration is an emergence that is not easily measured but is experienced.
The child who is integrated is very different from the symptomatic child whom the therapist meets initially. He is spontaneous and curious,
playful and compassionate, energetic and responsive,
active and quiet. He understands the meanings of emotions and how to regulate them. He allows himself to learn to the best of his abilities. He loves and allows himself to be loved. He is discriminate in relationships. He possesses a cohesive narrative of his lived his life (Carroll, 2013). When the integrated aliveness of the child is present and daily life becomes easier, the readiness for therapeutic closure develops (Landreth, 2012).
The Gestalt approach
provides a way for the therapist to understand the adaptive patterns and core issues
that underlie a child’s way of being in the world that cause him to need therapy.
Powers of Play From the Gestalt perspective, play is essential for integration. A playful attitude is necessary for curiosity and learning and is basic to social learning and problem solving (American Journal of Play, 2010; Panksepp, 1998; Schaefer & Drewes, 2014). The therapist heightens the child’s awareness of the issues in his life through processing the creative modalities of play (Oaklander, 1978, 2006). In therapy, a child learns who he is and who he is not, what he wants and what he does not want. He develops mastery in many areas including emotional expression and social relationships. He learns to cope with frustration and learns from mistakes and losses. Play ties the experience of the child and therapist together and allows for the emergence of an awareness of possibilities that are novel and interesting.
Summary The Gestalt play therapist is especially interested in how the child attempts to meet his needs/wants in conditions of non-support. The Gestalt approach provides a way for the therapist to understand the adaptive patterns and core issues that underlie a child’s way of being in the world that cause him to need therapy. The process of Gestalt play therapy is a relational, creative, playful endeavor that results in the natural organismic integration of the child and a playful attitude in his life.
38 | PLAYTHERAPY September 2019 |
www.a4pt.org
References American Journal of Play. (2010). Science of the brain as a gateway to understanding play: An interview with Jaak Panksepp. American Journal of Play, 2, 245-277.
Carroll, F. (Ed.). (2009a). Editor’s Introduction. Gestalt therapy with children and adolescents [Special Issue]. The Gestalt Journal, 21(2), 3-8.
Carroll, F. (2009b). Gestalt play therapy. In K. O’Connor & L. Braverman (Eds.), Play therapy theory and practice: A comparative presentation (2nd ed., pp. 283-314). New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
Carroll, F. (2013). Every child’s life is worth a story: A tool for integration. In J. Chang (Ed.), Creative interventions with children: A transtheoretical approach (pp. 187-191). Calgary, Canada: Family Psychology Press.
Grant, R. J. (2018). Understanding autism spectrum disorder: A workbook for children and teens.®
Publishing.
Landreth, G. L. (2012). Play therapy: The art of the relationship (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Oaklander, V. (1978). Windows to our children: A Gestalt therapy approach to children and adolescents. New York, NY: The Gestalt Journal Press.
Oaklander, V. (2006). Hidden treasure: A map to the child’s inner self. London, UK: Karnac Books. Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Perls, F. (1975). Theory and technique of personality integration. In J. Stevens (Ed.), Gestalt is (pp. 45-55). Moab, UT: Real People Press.
Schaefer, C. E., & Drewes, A. A. (Eds.). (2014). The therapeutic powers of play: 20 core agents of change (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Siegel, D. (1999). The developing mind. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Siegel, D. (2011). Attachment and mindfulness: Paths of the developing brain. In R. G. Lee & N. Harris (Eds.), Relational child, relational brain (pp. 77-115). Santa Cruz, CA: Gestalt Press.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Felicia Carroll, LMFT and RPT-S, is the Director- Faculty of the West Coast Institute for Gestalt Therapy with Children and Adolescents, LLC. She publishes and teaches internationally and is often a guest lecturer at conferences on Gestalt Play Therapy. She has been a friend of Violet Oaklander’s for 40 years.
fcarroll@west.net
Valente Orozco, Gestalt Therapist with adults, children and adolescents. Mr. Orozco works in private practice in Clovis, CA and is Core Faculty with the West Coast Institute for Gestalt Therapy with Children and Adolescents.
info@cloviscounseling.com
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