CLINICAL EDITOR’S COMMENTS: I
Play therapists must examine their personal beliefs about and experiences with divorce, as these have the potential to impact their work with divorced caregivers.
n the intricate landscape of family dynamics, few situations are as emotionally charged and complex as those involving divorce and separation. For children, the dissolution of their parents' marriage can be a bewildering and destabilizing experience, often leaving them with feelings of confusion, loss, grief, and insecurity. Caregivers may face similar emotional impacts as their child, layered on top degrees of communication breakdown, and more (Schmidt & Grigg, 2024).
Play therapists are prepared with skills, knowledge, and techniques to support children throughout the various stages of divorce. However, research shows that caregiver involvement in the play therapy process, when clinically appropriate, is a key component to increasing the effectiveness of play therapy outcomes (Bratton et al., 2005; Jeon & Meyers, 2023). The question then becomes: how, as play therapists, do we prepare ourselves to work with caregivers who are navigating divorce?
Play therapists working with divorced families must bring more than their professional expertise to the playroom; they must also bring a deep sense of empathy, curiosity, understanding, and regulation. Their attitudes towards divorce, family structures, and each therapeutic alliance and the overall effectiveness of treatment.
Creating a Safe Space for Caregivers Work with caregivers is a parallel process (Goodyear-Brown, 2021; Homeyer & Morrison Bennett, 2023). Caregivers bring their own feelings of hurt, loss, grief, and imperfect-humanness into same core conditions of genuineness, empathy, and unconditional positive regard to caregivers as they do to their child clients. As a supervisor and experienced play therapist, I observe and recognize that this can be easier said than done! Our grace and understanding tends to extend more easily to children than to their adults, but it is our responsibility to embody a “cascade of care” (Goodyear-Brown, 2021) - offering the same nurture, curiosity, patience, and co-regulation to caregivers that we do with our child clients.
create a safe space for caregivers. Neuroception is a subconscious process in which the body’s neural circuits assess for threats that
may be present within the environment, relationships, and within one’s own body (Porges, 2017). Deb Dana (2018) reframes this concept to highlight that we (humans) are constantly assessing for safety outside, inside, and in-between. Felt-safety is foundational for cues of safety to caregivers through a variety of ways.
created to communicate welcome, comfort, and acceptance for all unique family structures. From artwork to toy selection, spaces communicate what is welcome, or not, within the therapy space to both children and caregivers alike. During consultations, play therapists need to ensure that there are seating options to accommodate adult bodies and that allow for physical space, so that separated caregivers are not forced to sit together on a couch. Simple nurturing gestures such as providing water, warm beverages, or even a small snack can go a long way to help caregivers feel welcomed and settled at a time when emotions might be heightened.
Intake procedures are developed and implemented in such a way as to allow for all caregivers’ voices to be heard (as legally and/or ethically allowed), not favoring one perspective over another. Building a relationship with both caregivers, when possible, is ideal (Bratton or separate, with a mindset of openness and curiosity, so that you can begin to understand the experiences and perceptions of both
Clear communication and transparency around expectations for to building safety and predictability for both the play therapist and the caregivers (Jeon & Meyers, 2023). Consider the following ideas: outline from the start who will be paying for what and have a signed and who will be bringing them, including a backup plan if the child will need alternate transportation to session; and let caregivers know
www.a4pt.org | September 2024 | PLAYTHERAPY | 11
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
