Adlerian Play Therapy Essay

There was an argument in class again. As the teacher enters the class, everyone pointed at Caleb*. He denies the accusations made by others and shouted, “I did not do anything. They started it and now they’re blaming me”. The teacher turns and looks at the others and replied, “It was not like that before you came to this school”. The teacher knew that Caleb had been placed in many different schools that have reports of his disruptive behavior and so the ‘problematic’ boy is now causing trouble again in her class. Is Caleb really a problematic boy? What problem does he have and how can we help him? According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, play is things that people, particularly children, do for pleasure and not for work. Children acquire different experiences and knowledge through play. It is undeniable that playing is part of a child’s life and it has been used not only for earning but …show more content…
Dr. Terry Kottman (2002) commented that Adlerian play therapy is a way of working with children in which toys and playing are means of communication between the child and the therapist. She explained that this therapy was based on Alfred Adler’s theory on individual psychology. Every individual is viewed holistically. A child cannot be viewed isolated because it is the surrounding that affects a child’s development. Similar to how Urie Bronfenbrenner (1994) emphasize on the ecological system that affects a child, the Adlerian play therapy approach also sees a child holistically, which includes the surrounding that influence a child in different aspects. In terms of the Ecological System Theory, the Adlerian play therapy approach includes mainly the microsystems and mesosystem of the child client. In this case, a child cannot be considered a person outside the context of a family (Kottman, 2002). Therefore, family involvement during a Adlerian play therapy session is