Using art techniques, the therapist can ask the family to draw a family portrait, or a happy time and a sad time. They can construct a genogram. Using verbal techniques Lund et al. (2002) suggested using the narrative approach, circular questioning, and scaling questions to have the family reenact past and present family events. A narrative approach can be utilized to facilitate the telling and reframing of one’s story. Integrating a narrative approach into family play therapy empowers the child to take charge and to initiate changing a story from a negative one to a positive one. This also enables the child to explore options for the end of the story and to rewrite the story for his or her (personal or family’s) future.


By adjusting therapist way


of being and breaking a project into manageable parts, the child can experience small successes and make progress.


Circular questioning is an interview technique that enables the child/           


questions offer effective ways to assess how a client perceives treatment is going, how close or far a client believes s/he is to his or her goal, or to explore what a client expects or what s/he wishes to gain from treatment (de Castro & Guterman, 2008). To modify  how the character being used is feeling about therapy on a scale from 1 to 10, in which 1 is that they do not like coming at all and 10 is that they like coming and playing with their family in session. These scaling questions can be used towards the beginning of treatment, in the middle of treatment, and at the end of treatment to gauge the child or family’s perception of progress in treatment.


The therapist may ask questions or act as a director. For example, Landgarten (1987) described how a structural family therapist may act as a director: The therapist designs tasks that disrupt how the system function, causing the family to rearrange their roles to change unhealthy boundaries that restrict the system.


Using story-telling techniques, families can personify or reframe well-known or more personal stories. By alternating the story teller, mutual story-telling techniques allow families to create alternate endings for a story or event. Using puppets and dolls to present behavioral interactions or enact stories may be effective and less  anxiety. Experiential techniques may give the therapist a window into 


18 | PLAYTHERAPY | March 2018 | www.a4pt.org


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