MEMBER STORYTELLING
Therapy in an In-Home Setting Am I Therapeutic? Is This Therapy?
| VICKI MARCUM, LCSW, RPT-S F
or 10 years as a child and family therapist in a community mental health center, I provided In-home therapy in the midst of dirt,
bugs, mice, barking dogs, ringing telephones, doorbells, and people coming and going. Children opened the door for me in soggy diapers or soiled clothing. Parents would still be in pajamas because everyone, including the children, had been up all night watching a movie. The eyes would track any food an adult carried.
In self-examination and in consultation I would ask the following treatment, I found my answer.
Tyler was four years old and was referred to treatment for anxiety and
aggression.The family lived in an unkempt two-bedroom apartment. Our play space was 3 feet by 3 feet in the living room between the TV and the sofa where parents would be sitting on the couch watching television, demonstrating no interest or willingness to be part of the treatment process.
Tyler loved the dinosaur collection in my travel bag and we created a dinosaur kingdom with families of dinosaurs. Tyler’s aggression and dinosaur’s seeking attention and belonging through aggressive behavior and then being rejected.
moved boxes and the kitchen table to create a new play space for us that did not interfere with the TV. On that day Tyler took the magic leap from symbolic play to the world of experiential play. I was seated on the floor and Tyler was standing in front of me. We were holding hands. Tyler had been trying to walk up my torso. He had done this This time I picked him up and twisting to the side I placed him on the curled in a fetal position, making sucking noises, his hands curled up under his chin as his mother walked into the kitchen.
I invited Tyler’s mom to tell him about the day he was born. His mother replied in a very soft, loving manner, as though she were gazing at him
30 | PLAYTHERAPY | September 2023 |
www.a4pt.org
I suggested to the mother that new babes were often cold and hungry and asked if she had a blanket and something for the baby to drink. Tyler lay there not moving as his mother covered him with a blanket and prepared him something to drink. She did not pick him up, hold him or feed him, but she handed him the cup which he took with two hands. He began sucking and drinking hungrily, holding the cup in two hands as lightly as a newborn. His mother and I gazed at him in silent wonder. For those few minutes among the chaos of clutter and blaring TV, I was a therapeutic instrument of healing and a witness to the miracle of
change between a mother and child. ABOUT THEMEMBER
Vicki Marcum, LCSW, RPT-S is a licensed clinical social worker in a limited private practice. She has had three previous publications with APT. Reducing anxiety in the young child: Using Parent-Infant reducing the anxiety in school age children : By the yarn, helping children in families of
vmarcum51@yahoo.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
