Has Anyone Done Play Therapy?

Well I would still like to play with the toys whether it be in therapy or not!

Well, I did something out of character this weekend. I went shopping for toys for ME.

Having been prompted by T to try different methods of cracking open my hardened exterior, I thought I would attempt to take her ideas further at home. I'm going to be trying a personal experiment.

I bought some figurines that represent different aspects of myself. It's so weird to be in a toy store shopping for myself instead of my grandsons. And, I even wondered if I should share my figurines with them when they come to visit and I've decided that I should not - at least not yet.

Before I see T this week, I want to 'play' with them a lot and see how much I can learn. Already, I have gotten a tremendous insight about my situation just by externalizing my interior self. It's amazing how powerful a shift in vision can be. I can hardly believe it.

If I bring my 'toys' in to T, she is going to be flabbergasted. I'm flabbergasted myself. I would never have expected that I would do such a thing because it seems so nonsensical. I will love to see the shock (and delight) on her face.

Suratji, that is AWESOME!! Good for you!!! I agree keep the tous away from the grandchildren for a bit. Let you have dibs on them first!

That sounds awesome It's amazing how free doing something like this can make us feel. Kind of makes me want to try it myself.

Ditto for me!

Hey Suratji,

I think you did awesome to try this out for yourself and it sounds like you can see the benefits off it already! I agree that it's probably best not to share these figurines with your grandsons as they may loose them or something but it may be nice to try really getting involved in playing something with them?

I love Toy stores! Even if I don't by anything I love the colours and I just kinda love the toys too. Disney stores are my heaven and I want it all - for myself Although I do love to spoil my niece and nephew too hehe!

I bet little suratji had fun in the toy store!

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Oh, yes - both times T had me do Sand Tray, I was really embarrassed. But I felt I should give it a try. It had astounding results. Both of those sessions became deeply emotional and uncovered some stuff for me and helped T understand more about me.

But, when she brought out dolls last week, I tried to do it but I just couldn't. I wanted to make it work and that's why I thought I should try something like that at home. I would feel less embarrassed and if it worked, I could show it to T.

The cool thing, though, is that the figurines are very dramatic and I can feel their 'essence'. It makes it more 'real' than the cotton non-expressive dolls she had.

The different aspects of my persona represented by these figurines have already had some conversations with each other. I was blown away by an insight that came through that i'm sure could never have happened if I just 'thought about' my situation.

What exactly is the sand tray? Is it like playing in a sandbox??

As far as I understand the practice, yes. It involves constructing buildings and other structures in the sand. There's obviously more to it...maybe someone has done it before?

I've seen photos of other offices and my T's office is the same - there is a wall of shelves which hold lots and lots and lots of figurines. They represent everything from imaginary creatures, families, working people, buildings and different structures, animals, furniture and on and on.

There is also a table with sides on the top of about 2-3 inches. That area is covered with sand with a painted blue bottom.

The idea is to look at the figurines and select any of those that 'speak' to you and place them in the sand. Selection should be made with as little thought as possible - no wondering 'why' one is chosen, no attempting to build something preconceived.

After the figurines have been placed, we, the client, can move the sand the way we want - we can move it so it seems like water with the blue base exposed or we can make hills.

The figurines are then arranged in a way that makes sense to the client. In my case, I was totally amazed at what came out. I tried to do the process as well as I could - to make my mind as blank as possible in order to just allow my body to make the choices.

I can tell you it is magical. I would never have believed it if I hadn't experienced it myself.

When done, the T asks questions about what the scene means. And a photo is taken of it and placed in file - I suspect to be referred to at a later time.

Thanks for the clarification on that Suratji. It sounds like it was a very magical experience for you!

A few times my T has brought out these cards that have questions on them, and one set of cards was with a game similar to jenga I guess, that has these colored blocks that are stacked and everytime we would pull a block out of it, we'd pick up a card and read the question and I'd have to answer it. I was really self-conscious about it though because I didn't want to make the stack of blocks fall over and it sort of freaked me out when it was my T's turn and they fell everywhere. I wasn't really comfortable playing that and I don't think I'd want to play anything else during therapy because it reminds me a lot of when I had to see a T when I was 14 and she would have me play games like this, so it's kind of triggering for me.

Is there a website or anything that explains more how this works?

I would try doing a google search on it.

In response to the "parts" question (sorry I just read through this thread again) I use it in a few different ways. I think there are those who refer to "parts" as parts of themselves that may feel younger, but is not actually an "alternate personality" (I hate that term, but that's the clinical piece). Then there are parts, which can be used in place of "alter". Just depends on the person.

SURATJI - I love the way you explained the use at set up of a sand tray. Yes, this is how it is used and I LOVE sand tray work. I do it with kids mostly, but have used it with my adult clients as well. It allows you to really think and plan out a scene, and then revisit it to talk about it.

I have used sand tray in my own therapy (where I'm the client), it was actually with my inner kids. They would construct a scene in the sand tray and talk about it. Our favorite piece is when T would "enter" in it, and demonstrate what should have happened or how she would protect us in that situation.

Love, love, love sand tray!

You know, I'm wondering if the term 'play therapy' is accurate when the use of 'toys' facilitates self-understanding. I don't know what the official therapy word is for that process.

So, so far, I've used Sand Tray that showed me some of my personal global worldview of myself. It put me in touch with some core issues I had not been consciously aware of.

Then, I used the figurines to represent different parts of myself and they had conversation with each other and I gained an incredible insight that I think will change my life.

Today, I'm going back to the toy store to look for 2 puppets. My goal is for me to have a conversation with a person with whom I have had some painful traumatic experiences with. I hope to take these to session next week and hopefully my T can help me tap into the deep feelings associated with this person.

Play therapy? I have no idea but they definitely have taken me to the play arena of toy stores.

My husband taught me to play poker a couple months ago... when I told my T she said "You need to teach me!" so we are going to play it sometime. we have taken games (Board games) to therapy before and that was fun.