Q&A: Exploring The Sensitive Topic Of Abuse And Neglect In The Playroom: A Guide For Play Therapists

Mar 3, 2023

In this episode, I take on a question that was asked of my by listener Rachel. She asked: “I’m wondering what you do in situations where you have concerns of abuse/neglect. Do you ever take a different role with the child for the purposes of safety or assessment? Do you ever do any teaching with kids when it comes to safety when you have concerns about the environment they live in not being safe? Maybe that’s not our job, but sometimes I feel responsibility to help teach kids about boundaries, safe touch, etc when I have concerns about what they are being exposed to”.

So I categorized her question into three areas and addressed each one:

– Do we take a different role?
– Do we move into a teaching/safety role?
– What do we do, how do we handle boundaries?

Thank you for your questions! If you have a question you can always email me at [email protected] and I will do my best to answer you in the podcast.

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References:

Cochran, N., Nordling, W., & Cochran, J. (2010). Child-Centered Play Therapy (1st ed.). Wiley.
VanFleet, R., Sywulak, A. E., & Sniscak, C. C. (2010). Child-centered play therapy. Guilford Press.
Landreth, G. L. (2002). Play therapy: The art of the relationship (2nd ed.). Brunner-Routledge.
Bratton, S. C., Landreth, G. L., Kellam, T., & Blackard, S. R. (2006). Child parent relationship therapy (CPRT) treatment manual: A 10-session filial therapy model for training parents. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Benedict, Helen. Themes in Play Therapy. Used with permission to Heartland Play Therapy Institute.

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