"Group Play Therapy" from The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Group Therapy

Authors

• Michelle Englbom-Deglmann, George Fox UniversityFollow

Document Type

Book

Publication Date

2016

Abstract

Group therapy, with clients of all ages, has a significant focus on community. As part of this community focus, group therapy has the potential to combat one of the greatest human pains: loneliness. Play therapy clients, most often children, “already struggle for autonomy and identity in this world, and can be cruelly oppressed in the midst of trauma and chaos and left feeling unfairly isolated” (Sweeney, 2011, p. 227). In his discussion of loneliness, Moustakas (1974) poignantly wrote, “It is the terror of loneliness, not loneliness itself but loneliness anxiety, the fear of being left alone, of being left out, that represents a dominant crisis in the struggle to become a person” (p. 16).

Group play therapy is a unique and developmentally broad way of reaching clients of all ages who struggle with the loneliness involved with all presenting issues. Although group play therapy is not necessarily associated with a specific theoretical approach or particular technique, it does create the opportunity for the loneliness of struggle to be addressed in a developmentally appropriate and expressive manner. Group play therapy is the recognition of children’s natural mode of expression (play), combined with the natural benefit of human connection with other children, under the facilitation of a trained and caring adult (Sweeney, 2011).

In both individual and group therapeutic work with children and adolescents, it is crucial that interventions be both targeted and developmentally appropriate. It is our contention that while young people may benefit from standard ‘adult’ group play therapy interventions such as therapeutic games, they may also find these interventions to be developmentally challenging. Group play therapy is conducted with clients of all ages, and is uniquely inclusive and systemic.

Comments

Originally published in Engblom-Deglmann, M. (2016). Group Play Therapy. In The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Group Therapy. Routledge.

Recommended Citation

Englbom-Deglmann, Michelle, ""Group Play Therapy" from The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Group Therapy" (2016). Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling. 99.
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/gsc/99