I had many young alters but we did not have a playroom or area in my mind for them to play....until....my therapist suggested we all have a safe spot through using guided visualization.

each of my alters had their own way of being their own jobs, purposes reasons for being created, what they could and could not do, how much control they had and much more (in other words their own sense of agency).

because of this kind of internal system when my alters were in control they did what ever they were able to do...ie when rainy was in control if it was part of her sense of agency she would find a real playground and go play on it, if thelma wanted to go for a plane ride she went to the airport and rented a ride on a charter plane, if red wanted to ride the supermarket monster looking coin ride she would get on the mechanical monster, put a quarter in the slot and ride.

one of my therapists did a relaxation\stress reduction exercise with me where through deep relaxation we ....imagined.....a safe spot that anyone (body born or altered) can think about and day dream about and self sooth when needed. some of my alters refused to use this safe spot because it wasnt something real, they could not ....really\actually....... run and play unless they had control of the body, they knew the difference between reality and imagined\daydreaming\mental play since reality testing remains intact. for some having to imagine \pretend they were playing caused more fighting and wanting more control over the body then their sense of agency allowed them to have.

I also had a few young alters that were stuck in their own time frames. example ones sense of agency was to hold the memory of being lost in the mine shafts. therefore any time she took control she was still trying to make her way out of the mine shafts. since it was dark in the mine shafts part of her sense of agency was blindness \seeing nothing but darkness. due to her sense of agency that was her reality. At first we thought this alter was psychotic (hallucinating\delusional) but over time we discovered since the mine shafts were a real place and that I had been lost in them and she was created to hold that memory, she was just reliving the memories that she held. in time she was no longer needed to hold those trauma filled memories and integrated\became one with me. since she was perpetually stuck in this one situation she never was able to incorporate daydreaming\visualizing a mental safe spot for playing.

the end result of this create a mental safe spot in therapy for me was that each continued to take control of the body when ever I was triggered\ dissociated and when they were in control they continued doing what their sense of agency was. if it included things like playing then they did that when in control of the body.

that said I do know some people who were able to daydream \ imagine \ visualize play rooms for their alters and their alters were satisfied with the mental rather than or in conjunction with real playing, they still knew what was real playing and what was their imaginings\ daydreaming type play due to reality testing remains intact.