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Theraplay®
Theraplay® is a short-term therapy -approximately 8-12 sessions- for parents and children together. It is a well established treatment that can foster a secure attachment between parents and children and improve parent-child relationships.
Who can benefit from Theraplay®?
- Children with special needs and challenges
Parenting any child can be a tall order. It is more difficult when children come to us with biological or developmental challenges. Children with difficult temperaments, ADHD, autism or, developmental delays, for example, can test even the most caring and committed parents.
- Children who have experienced the temporary loss of a parent through illness or separation.
- Children and adolescents in foster care, group homes or adoptive homes.
Neglected or abused children, who are no longer with their birth families, often have problems trusting and connecting emotionally with new parents. Such children may have very challenging behaviours. Some may have a fierce need to be in charge and will refuse to comply with parental authority. Others may resist parental nurturing.
- Teens and adults who have developmental disabilities.
Some teens and adults with developmental disabilities have challenging behaviours or social difficulties that have not responded to traditional behavioural therapies. Some have been in institutions and separated from parents for years. Theraplay® can often decrease aggressive behaviour or help the disabled teen or adult improve his or her relationships with others.
Group therapy
Therapy can also be done with small groups. Children and teens, as well as adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities can improve their relationships with peers and with the adults in their lives through group Theraplay®.
What is the Basis for Theraplay®?
Theraplay® is an interactional approach based on the premise that parents and children influence each other. For example, a child who is uncomfortable with nurturing touch may pull away from hugs. His parents may try harder to get close to the child and the child may retreat even more. Or, a child may resist all efforts at discipline, becoming aggressive or otherwise controlling. Such behaviours can sap parents' confidence in their parenting skills.
What Does Theraplay® Involve?
Theraplay® involves simple games and activities, about 8-12 per session, that are similar to the interactions that parents engage in intuitively with very young children. These activities focus on four key qualities found, through research, in healthy parent-child relationships: structure, engagement, nurture and challenge.
The activities are geared to a child's or teen's emotional level rather than to his age or cognitive level. For example, a child will be asked to play simple games and allow herself to be fed and cuddled. Some parents worry that their child is being treated younger than his age. However, simplicity is important so that parent and child can focus completely on each other in a playful, enjoyable way and not on learning something new and complex. Moreover, many children who have never had a secure attachment (neglected or abused children) need to experience what they missed before they can form a secure attachment to new parents.
For more information on Theraplay®, click on the link to the Theraplay® Institute website.
Much of the information in this article is adapted from:
The Theraplay® Institute Newsletter, winter 1999/2000, No. 11
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