Personal Process in Child-Centred Play Therapy

Description

Personal Process in Child-Centred Play Therapy provides a very specific exploration of the play therapy process from the personal perspective of the play therapist. This volume examines the personal challenges, opportunities, losses and gains, and numerous obstacles that one has to negotiate through the course of both training to become a play therapist and working as a qualified clinician with children who have complex life difficulties. The book aims to offer a forum within which the role, function and process of the "personal" within play therapy can be explored. Bringing together a number of experienced play therapists, the book shares often deeply personal accounts of their experience of training and clinical practice. Chapters challenge the unspoken therapist taboos of shame, childhood trauma, vulnerability and grief, shining a light on the more hidden areas of therapist experience. Clinical issues around the unconscious process are also explored, but once again from the personal position of the play therapist, rather than the child. With a unique and distinct perspective on the therapeutic process, this book is specifically intended for both trainee and experienced play therapists, but will be relevant to all psychotherapists involved in working therapeutically with children and young people. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of contributors Preface Acknowledgements 1 ‘The child is the father of the man’: paternal patterns of countertransference and empathy 2 Thresholds and transitions: from trainee to therapist and trainer 3 The stories we tell about ourselves 4 A hero’s journey: finding gold at the end of the rainbow 5 Shame: healing and beyond 6 Present without presence: supporting the dissociative child in play therapy 7 I see you, you see me: the personal process of a play therapy clinical supervisor 8 The artisans of the relationship: an exploration of trainee vulnerability 9 Self-care: another important relationship 10 The art of witnessing: exploring the interplay between play therapy, theatre and supervision 11 Tremor: shaken and stirred 12 When we say goodbye: a reflective account of endings in the therapeutic relationship Index