Reviews - Play Therapy
This book introduces children age 3-12 to think about their wellbeing and establish control over their
emotions and deal with negative people in an art centered and creative approach.
The layout itself is extremely accessible with much variety, bullet point suggestions, starts of sentences a
child ends, blank lines with picture prompts, cue card activities and formatted words and pictures that are
easy to look at and follow. The book is seemingly made for each and every page to be photocopied and then
be put to instant use (large text, big pictures meant for colouring in and cut outs) so no searching or
paying for copious amounts of material or playthings. Each activity has clear targets and aims for what is
supposed to be taken out of the activity so as a practitioner if you have a specific area of a child's
emotional need you want more developed (for example, self care), it would be easy to find the relevant
material needed.
Due to the heavy emphasis on structure, specific goals and inflexibility I would not use this book
as a playworker and would bring none of the activities to a play session. However
for teacher or social worker might benefit from the layout. The work is very independent
and seems meant to be done alone, if you have a group of children some might feel
embarrassed to share their response to such personal questions and there are no
group games or team targets. Parents might also find a lot of the activities from the book useful -
however some chapters they can't really use, such as the ones aimed to counselors. Although the book tries to
include every adult working or looking after children it over-stretches itself at points by leaving out whole
sections of readers in some chapters.
The book seems to have long term benefits and tries to focus on both the root of the problems as well as the
detrimental behaviors that come from those problems. It also has some good, fun art activities.
Written by Megan Valero, PATH Playworker and
playwork student at Gwyndor University.
This book sets about explaining and examining mental health in children and young people. It accomplishes
this, giving the reader an overview of mental health issues starting from: looking at different definitions,
the role of child development and the family, possible causes, various types of behaviours associated with
mental health, to the diagnosis process and different types of treatment. The book includes gender differences
and how some mental health impairments can be associated to a specific gender or age. It outlined the roles
of different professionals, explaining the methods of collecting information from young people and their
families and the policies and procedures you would need to take into account as a professional working
within this remit. The book outlines potential causes of mental health impairments including biological,
emotional, and environmental and assesses different theories relating to these. It looks at different types
of mental health impairments including behavioural, emotional and neurodevelopment impairments and when
explaining specific mental health impairments the book does so in a reader friendly manner, breaking down
the information. The book explores different types of treatment including therapy and medical. The final
chapter looks at the legalities associated with mental health and children and young people. For me this
book had limited explanation of society's role to play within the barriers faced by children and young
people with mental health impairments. The book did briefly include sections on this topic including one on
stigma; however I felt this book did adopt a medicalised approach to mental health but it never claimed not to!
The book is an accessible read for not just front-line staff and students, but also insightful to families
of children and young people with mental health impairments. There are useful exercises, which make you
think more thoroughly about what you have read and how you would go about things. I was amazed after having
studied psychology, and never quite grasping Piaget's theory of development, this book managed to clear that
up within three pages! An interesting and clear read.
Written by Siobhan O'Connor.
The first thing to say about
this book is that if you are
not working in therapeutic
environments, don't be put
off by the title. Whilst I'm
sure that those who are
therapists will find the book
of interest, as somebody
who sits on both sides of
the fence I would say that
this book has an awful lot to
offer people who are not
working therapeutically
with children, but work
instead in any area of play. The book is divided into
four sections and each section has chapters on
different aspects of the theme by different
contributors, and this is a real strength of the book.
The diverse range of contributors, many of them from
Australia but also the United States, England and
Finland, offer a wide range of both practical and
theoretical perspectives.
Section 1 is entitled 'Theoretical Understanding of
Play' and gives some interesting slants on well-rehearsed
questions such as the definition of play and
what helps playfulness. Section 2 is about 'Play
Assessment' and describes many different ways of,
and reasons for, making observations and judgements
about how children are playing. The third section is
'Play Contexts' and this contains some useful chapters
on working with parents and play in hospitals,
although I have to say that I felt that the chapter on
'Cultural Considerations' was problematic and
perhaps could have benefited from a longer piece in
order to avoid the material being mis-interpreted as
potentially stereotypical. The last section, 'Play based
Therapies' is perhaps the only section that play
therapists might feel is really just for them, but even
here there is much to interest non-therapists and I
found the chapter which discussed using assistive
technology to help children with physical difficulties to
play really interesting.
The book is clearly written and each chapter comes
with its own reference list, which is useful in itself. The
book contains much new material to learn from and
reflect on for a wide range of people who work where
children play.
Written by Shelly Newstead, Common Threads.
This book would be
of particular interest to readers
working in therapeutic settings with
children. The author is a
psychotherapist and this book contains accounts of play
therapy work that he has undertaken with children,
interwoven with theoretical commentary and personal
and professional reflections. Using the image of
'monsters' as seen from a Jungian perspective, he
describes how this helps children to 'live with the bigness
of life' and uses case studies from his own work to
describe how children have incorporated the 'monster'
into their own healing processes. It is written in an
accessible and engaging style and those working in
therapeutic settings should find much to reflect on in the
way that the theme of the book is presented.
Written by Shelly Newstead, Common Threads.
This is a useful book for professionals who carry out therapeutic work within a healthcare setting. Each
chapter indicates the type of activity, its purpose, resources required, number of participants and age
appropriateness. It also offers a reminder that if you are given a piece of art work by a patient it is
intended for you alone unless you have been given permission to display it in a public place. The book
provides positive examples of how the arts can enhance healthcare and makes the point that sick
people deserve new materials not worn down products; an essential factor for immuno- compromised
patients.
The book advises on when it is appropriate to help a patient with their art and reinforces the practice of
using open ended question technique as apposed to asking the patient to name it when in fact, there
might not be an 'it'. The authors warn against assuming you know the content of the art which in
effect, kills the magic of the activity. The book provides ideas on facilitating icebreakers and final
sessions as well as poetry and guided imagery; therefore, hospital play specialists would find this a useful resource. However,
professionals who are helping others to express their feelings and make sense of their situation would also find this a flexible tool.
Written by Norma Jun-Tai, Chair, National Association of Hospital Play Staff.
Links to other review sections:
Activities and Games,
Behaviour,
Management,
Outdoor Play,
Play,
Play in Schools,
Playwork Theory,
Play Therapy,
Playwork,
Rights and Responsibilities.
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