Play Therapy

New Therapy Products and Newsletter

2010-03-13T17:16:09Z

ChildTherapyToys.com continues to be the number one source for child and play therapy supplies for many reasons, but chief among them is the fact that we are constantly updating our selection with the newest toys, books, and games around. Whenever a new fantastic product is developed, you can bet it’s in our stockroom. For example, My 2 Homes, a fun, engaging new game for children having difficulty dealing with their parents’ divorce, is newly available and destined to be a bestseller. In fact, we’ve already sold out of the first shipment!

In the past month we’ve been focusing on sand tray products. We are currently putting together an updated, 2010 edition of our wildly popular Sand Play Therapy Kits which should be available very soon. And, of course, since you can never have enough sand tray miniatures, we've added a bunch of new ones to our inventory. We've had a lot of requests for very small human figurines, so this month we've introduced a large collection of these "mini-miniatures", towering at upwards of 1.5 inches. Over the past year, we've also improved our selection of fantasy figures, such as Dragons, Faeries and Elves, Mythological Characters, and Witches and Wizards.

It’s very satisfying for us to find fun and helpful new products and make them available for professionals and non-professionals alike. To keep everyone up-to-date on new and upcoming products we created a ChildTherapyToys newsletter. To join, just go to the homepage and enter your name and email address. And while you're at it, why not join our facebook group?

New book from Liana Lowenstein

2010-03-07T15:25:00Z

Liana Lowenstein, MSW is the author of several books and resources that have served as great references for me over the years. Her newest installment Assessment and Treatment Activities for Children, Adolescents and Families, Volume Two is now available and is just as indispensable as her previous work. Like the first volume, this book is full of effective and practical techniques from veteran practitioners, all expertly compiled and edited by Lowenstein. This is yet another treasure trove of engaging activities and interventions aimed at assessing and treating children of all ages and their families. Many issues are addressed including Feelings Expression, Self-Esteem, Social Skills, and Termination. Volume Two is an updated best-of-the-best collection that should not be missed.

Lowenstein's previous books are equally essential for mental health professionals. Creative Interventions for Troubled Children & Youth and MORE Creative Interventions for Troubled Children & Youth are best-selling collections filled with creative assessment andtreatment interventions to help clients identify feelings, learn copingstrategies, enhance social skills, and elevate self-esteem. Lowenstein addresses more specific issues in Creative Interventions for Bereaved Children and Creative Interventions for Children of Divorce. The former is a uniquely creative compilation of therapeutic games, art activities,and stories to help bereaved children express feelings of grief, learnbasic concepts of death, diffuse traumatic reminders, addressself-blame, commemorate the deceased, and learn coping strategies. The latter consists of therapeutic games, art techniques, andstories to help children of divorce express feelings, understandmarriage and divorce, deal with loyalty binds, parental conflict, andreunification fantasies, address self-blame, and learn copingstrategies. And of course there's the original volume of Assessment and Treatment Activities for Children, Adolescents, and Families I mentioned above.

Lowenstein has been a key player in the field of children's mental health for years and many practitioners, myself included, are always excited and intrigued by her output. The new volume of Assessment and Treatment is yet another gem and hopefully not the last in this series as our field of therapy continues to evolve.

Highly Recommended Self-Esteem and Bullying Books

2010-02-19T15:40:00Z

I have been meaning to write a post in praise of Pat Palmer's and Betty L. Shondeck's wonderful books on self-esteem and bullying, and it wasn't until Psychology Today beat me to it that I was reminded. As the review suggests, there are plenty of books available on these subjects, but Palmer's simple-yet-innovative approach, together with Shondeck's charming illustrations, elevate these to "must-have" status for any child clinician.

Liking Myself approaches issues of emotion and self-esteem with a simple philosophy: "Feelings are our good friends", and we should treat them as such. Divided into six parts ("Liking Myself", "Feelings", "Feelings Talk", "Allowing", "Body Talk", and "Letting Go"), the book gives children the tools for developing self-awareness, managing emotions, and letting go of negativity. Palmer stresses assertiveness and a healthy, attentive mind-body relationship, and reminds us that it is okay to like ourselves. This charmingly-illustrated, hand-lettered edition is loaded with ideas and exercises to improve self-esteem and well-being.

The Mouse, the Monster, and Me is an excellent companion to Liking Myself that applies Palmer's principles of assertiveness and self-appreciation to the issue of bullying. This book helps children identify passive ("mouse") and aggressive ("monster") behaviors in themselves and others, and discover their own true and assertive "me". Palmer effectively illustrates the value of knowing yourself (your strengths, rights, responsibilities, and more) in situations when you are faced with criticism and other threats to your self-esteem. This edition also includes a note to the young reader by the author.

Like all great children's books, these classics hit home for kids and adults alike. I have been using them in my practice for years and was very excited about these revised editions. Both are available at ChildTherapyToys, along with many other books on feelings/self-esteem and bullying.

Innovative Child Therapy & Play Therapy Product

2009-12-21T19:36:00Z

Innovative child and play therapy product—we’re not sure why no one has thought of this before. This is the most innovative play therapy product of 2009. Our sturdy chalkboard is a commercial grade composite board with baked on black coat. It is specifically designed for heavy, daily use. This human shaped board and chalk set provides another way for children to express themselves. By providing a

completely neutral figure children are free to create any person or character they wish. The board is 18inches tall, and 1/4 inch composite. The coating is baked on to increase durability. This is a custom made product, produced exclusively for childtherapytoys.com. Click here for more information.

The chalkboard on the right was created by an eight year old male angry with
his father for divorcing his mother, and now living with another woman.

Feelings Education

2009-12-15T16:42:00Z

Many of our clients come to us with a very poor feelings word vocabulary, making it difficult for them to effectively use language to communicate their internal state. Literally dozens of products now exist that encourage and allow our young clients to express themselves; everything from posters to books, board games, and our very popular Mood Dudes. Check out our large collection of feelings items here.

Three of our most popular feelings products are the Laminated Feelings Poster (available in English and Spanish, and in a variety of sizes), Feelings Playing Cards, and Feelings Fair. The Feelings Playing Cards can be used to play the game "Fish" (when a player gets two matching cards, they get to lay them down after they identify a time they had a feeling). The Feelings Poster can be used to open a session by simply inviting a child to look at the poster and see if they can find a feeling they've had today. The Feelings Fair game allows children to express their feelings while going on a journey through the fair. It's perfect for children ages six to twelve.

Two other products of recent popularity are the Emotions Mania Thumball and Faces and Feelings Listening Lotto. The Thumball works great as an icebreaker activity in groups, and the Faces and Feelings Listening Lotto explores the look and tone of emotions as kids match narrative statements to photographs of kids' faces showing different expressions. To play, players listen to a CD and place tokens on the images on their game cards that match what the hear.

All of these have been very impactful in my sessions. Has anyone else had experience with these items? Let us know on the comment boards.

Best Bop Bag ever!

2009-12-15T03:53:00Z

We have finally located a bop bag that should last for years. This bop bag was designed by an industrial designer and developed specifically for settings where toughness and durability matter.The exterior is covered with Marine vinyl, and the interior consists of a polystyrene center, surrounded with fiber fill. A heavy sand base keeps the bag upright. We think the size is perfect:20” base and 42" tall.
Check it out and let us know what you think. TUFF BOP BAG

The Prison Educator's Dilemma

2009-10-31T22:21:00Z

COMMENT: The following true story by Dr. Rubenstein illustrates how board games can be used to teach social skills necessary for maintaining employment, in a way direct instruction never could. Similarly, board games in therapy can be used to teach numerous skills needed by our clients. Skills include identifying and expressing feelings, communicating assertively, anger control, friendship maintenance, cooperation, compliance, empathy, impulse control, and so on. We are pleased to be able to carry many games developed by Dr. Rubenstein^**. You may peruse games on our web site by content, age, or topic.

The Prisoner Educator’s Dilemma
a true story by Dr. Franklin Rubenstein

The state of Maryland had a policy of securing jobs in the private sector for all of the juveniles that passed through their juvenile justice system. This was not an easy task, because the vast majority of the youths were only able to keep their jobs for just a few days. Once they lost their jobs, the juveniles were much more likely to go back to drug dealing or other ways of making money. The Superintendent asked a consultant to develop a curriculum to deal with this problem. The consultant found that the youths did not understand the basics of the informal contract that any job entails. They did not see anything wrong with coming in late, cursing the boss if he or she complained about their work, loafing whenever the opportunity arose, threatening other employees, etc. In addition, they had no realistic concept of the role of a supervisor (separate from giving them a hard time).

After many dead ends, the consultant set up an exercise where the youths were divided into groups which would function as companies. The companies were given a production task, creating the tallest building possible out of a length of aluminum foil. Motivation was established by announcing a prize for the tallest building. The companies would compete for the prize. Some youths were assigned the roles of company presidents (bosses) and the remainder of the youths were the workers.

Unknown to the presidents, certain youths were coached ahead of time to be lazy and uncooperative – to exhibit the same behaviors that would cause many of the youths to be fired from their real jobs. After about fifteen minutes the exercise had to be stopped because the presidents were so frustrated and angry that they were threatening to beat up the poorly performing workers. After tempers had cooled, the experience was discussed by all involved. It was apparent that reversing the role of some of the youths (that is, making them the boss) gave them insight into the legitimate role of the boss. They felt the frustration that real bosses feel when workers don’t perform, and they stated that if it were a real company, they would have fired all the poorly performing workers.

Since the exercise could lead to violence and required a great deal of supervision, the consultant turned the concept into a board game. Players were in the role of managers of a store similar to Target or Wal-Mart. Each player had several employees (fictitious instead of real people), some of whom are good employees, and some of whom are bad employees who come in late, stay out the first day of the big sale when they are needed most, are rude to customers, etc. These are the same behaviors that the youths were likely to display when they started their real jobs. The only way to win the game was to fire the bad employees, which the players did with enthusiasm. The board game was a huge success; the youths began to understand that any normal person in the boss’s job would fire bad employees. They developed respect for the boss and learned what they had to do to keep their jobs.

When faced with the need to teach a skill which is very difficult to teach using traditional methods, a board game can sometimes do wonders. Here the key was reversing the roles of the youths from real life. . . making them the bosses instead of the subordinate roles in which they would start their careers. If you don’t have an existing game that suits your needs, with a little guided role-playing, you can help your students understand what's happening on the other side of the desk. Games are the perfect solution because they can safely give students rewards that emulate what happens in the real world. The concept of role reversal can work for school (kids play the teacher and deal with disruptive students) or home (kids play the parent and deal with misbehaving children).

^**Games developed by Dr. Franklin Rubenstein and Franklin Learning Systems(all are available from www.childtherapytoys.com): Anger Control: Play-2-Learn Dominoes, Bully Wise: Play-2-Learn Dominoes, Feelings Fun: Play-2-Learn Dominoes, Friendship: Play-2-Learn Dominoes, Out of Your Mind! (social and emotional skills), Boundaries Baseball, Furious Fred, Character Circles, The Big Top Game (Autism, Asperger's, PDD, NOS), One Step at a Time, Clear Thinking, Feelings Fair, Common Ground, From Rage To Reason, Listening Counts (basic social skills and listening), Circle of Respect (understand and show respect), Bridge Over Worried Waters (for Anxiety Disorders), BullySafe, CyberSmart, Remote Control Anger Control, Splitsville: Coping with Separation and Divorce, Remote Control Impulse Control, Focus, Breaking the Chains of Anger, Conflict Busters, Friendship Island.

New Product Update

2009-10-28T19:17:00Z

In the past six months we've added over a 100 products spread across all of our major categories: books, games, toys, and miniatures. Rather than bore you with all the details visit our New Products page and browse at your leisure. We've also added a new video of our sand trays on YouTube.com and a video of our exhibit at the Association for Play Therapy conference in Atlanta. Speaking of Atlanta, our number one best seller was our custom made Play Therapy Chalkboard. In addition, to adding new products we've updated our homepage, many of our product pages, and our seach function. We're trying hard to be a "full service" child therapy store, so please let us know if there's something you need but can't find. As one conference participant said after seeing our exhibit in Atlanta, "You're like the Walmart of play therapy."

Articles, Resources, Products, and More

2009-10-04T14:31:00Z

As invaluable as the internet is for finding help and information, there can also be too much information to sift through. Even the most practiced googlers can sometimes find themselves scrolling through 5 or more pages of search results to find what they're really seeking. It is with this in mind that I created our three sister sites: My Play Therapy Page, My Parenting Page, and My Special Ed-504 Page.

Like any professional, I like to keep up with new developments in my field and will often refer clients to particular articles that I think could be of value in a given situation. In the past year and a half I've collected tons of great articles, resources, products, multimedia, and more and organized them into appropriate categories and subcategories. This way, if I'm looking for, say, play therapy research and case reports, I need only click on the category to view my entire collection. Or if a parent needs help advocating for special ed for their child, I can easily point them to a host of resources.

My goal was to create ideal bookmarks for practitioners, educators, and parents. The sites grow more and more every week as I add articles, categories, videos and whatever else I find while mining the world wide web. I also regularly update news items from all over the world concerning play therapy and special education.

I'm happy to share my findings with you and I hope you find these sites as simple and useful as I've intended them to be. Check the homepages monthly for my top picks!

Helping a Child Deal with Death - FAQs

2009-08-11T19:19:00Z

The following is taken from the latest issue of Diane Cantrell's wonderful newsletter "Preparing Children for Love, Life, and Loss". Enjoy and feel free to comment!

Explaining death to a young child as well as dealing with the ramifications of such news is a stressfull task for even the most courageous parents.The loss of the family’s beloved pet is often a child’s first experience with death. Many parents are dealing with their own issues around the loss of their dear friend and family member as well as attempting to explain what is happening to their young child. Listed below are some frequently asked questions and responses that I hope will serve as a road map during a time when one often feels lost and without guidance.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do pre-school children view the death of a pet?

Pre-school children don’t have the ability to conceptualize the permanence of death. They think in terms of death as if someone is going on a trip or going to sleep. Though they can’t understand the finality of loss they do experience great sadness because they miss their pet’s presence. Unfortunately, children this age don’t have the ability to express their feelings in words. As a result they may act out their sadness by being irritable, oppositional, withdrawn, or aggressive.

Children from infancy to age 6 are also very egocentric. They literally believe that the world revolves around them and that things happen because of them. Thus, the child often blames him/herself for the death of the beloved pet. For example, if a child has been told not to pull the family dog’s tail, they may think that because they disobeyed this command the dog died.

What are some of the questions they may have?

Due to the child’s inability to conceptualize the permanence of death he/she may repeatedly ask when they will see their pet again or when the pet is coming home. Children may ask and worry about who is caring for their pet and how the pet is getting their needs met.

How can parents answer these questions?

When responding to children’s questions about death it is important to be honest without giving more information than the child can understand. For example, an appropriate response to a question about when the family will see their pet again is, “When a pet dies we are never able to see them again but we can remember them forever.” It is also important to reassure that the pet’s death is not due to anything that the child did or didn’t do.

In response to questions regarding the care of the pet it is important to let the child know that when animals and people die they no longer need to eat, sleep, play or go on walks. The young child may not fully comprehend this answer but it may relieve them of their worries. They do need to be reassured that the animal is not in danger or facing further harm.

Telling a child that their pet has gone to sleep may cause anxieties around their own sleep. Comparing death to falling asleep may be frightening to a child and lead to sleep disturbance.

In general, how can a parent help their child handle the death of a family pet?

There are many things parents can do to assist children in dealing with loss. They are:

1. Listen, validate and reassure. Be patient in answering repeated questions and assure children that it is okay/normal for them to feel mad, sad, or afraid and tearful. If your child expresses worry or sadness, you can provide validation by telling them that you feel sad as well. While acknowledging feelings be sure to let the child know that even though the feelings may be overwhelming they can handle them.

2. Observe. After the loss of a pet play close attention to your child’s play, artwork, and behavior for these are the blueprints to your child’s feelings and concerns. Remember, children ages 4-6 don’t have the language to express complex emotions but do so through their play and behavior. Notice any themes that may emerge in your child’s play and artwork. Also be aware of behavior changes such as increased aggressiveness, anger, or withdrawal. These are signs that your child is having a difficult time with the loss.

3. Engage. It is so important to provide opportunities to engage your child in conversation about the loss. Reading fictional picture books that address grief and loss can serve as valuable springboards for discussion. Having your child tell about their artwork can also lead to meaningful interactions. Assist the child in planning a special good-bye for their pet. It may be a traditional funeral or a memorial in which the children draw pictures for the pet, make gifts, and or take a special walk in the pet’s honor. Children have many good ideas about how they wish to say good-bye to their special family friend. Be sure to ask, listen, and assist in the implementation of these ideas.

-Diane Cantrell, MA, LPC

Diane Cantrell is a former kindergarten teacher and the author of the Mom's Choice Awards Gold Recipient book Good-Bye, Baby Max, available at ChildTherapyToys.com.

Preparing Children For Love, Life, and Loss

2009-07-07T20:45:00Z

Loss and Renewal
One thing I know for sure is that everyone experiences loss. In fact, our first encounter with loss is at birth. As we enter into our mother’s loving arms and a host of other beginnings and blessings, we simultaneously lose the warmth, security, protection, and nurturance of our mother’s womb. Likewise, as a child accomplishes each developmental milestone a loss simultaneously occurs. For example, when a child begins walking his or her world open to many wondrous possibilities. The child however, also loses some of the special care and protection given by his or her mother as he or she moves beyond the parent’s glance and into uncharted territory. The toddler is exhilarated by their newfound freedom but also experiences many bumps, bruises, and scrapes along the way. So my friends, like it or not, loss is an integral part of the fabric of life. The good news is that with each loss come numerous opportunities for continued growth and renewal.

Far too often I witness adults attempting to protect children from loss rather than preparing them for the inevitable. Perhaps it is our own fear of loss and our need to shield our children from pain that inhibit us from discussing difficult topics with our children. Ironically, it is our inability to address these issues that send the message to children that death and loss is be feared and that feeling of sadness should be avoided at all cost. The first step in assisting children through the tough stuff is to examine and accept our own feelings about the difficulties being faced. As hard as this may be, it is essential to experiencing the growth and renewal that loss offers as well as preparing our children for empowerment in their journey through love, life, and loss.

-Diane Cantrell, MA, LPC

Diane Cantrell is a former kindergarten teacher and the author of the Mom's Choice Awards Gold Recipient book Good-Bye, Baby Max, available at ChildTherapyToys.com. Here's what Diane has to say about the book and her newsletter, "Preparing Children for Love, Life, and Loss":

"I have written Good-bye Baby Max, to encourage dialogue around loss in one’s life and the importance of grieving them, as well as the importance of renewal and hope that is born out of loss. Furthermore, my desire is that this newsletter will provide thoughts, information, and an opportunity for reflection on all aspects of love, life and loss."

Should clinicians identify themselves professionally as Play Therapists?

2009-06-27T21:56:00Z

Should clinicians identify themselves professionally as “Play Therapists?” I would say “no” unless it is the clinician’s intention to limit their practice to that single intervention and the clinician is prepared to refer clients not appropriate for play therapy to someone else. Of course, I’m making an assumption that other forms of intervention may be more appropriate for addressing and treating some issues and diagnoses. Unfortunately, our profession still has clinicians trying to fit a “square peg in a round hole.”

There are three reasons why I think we should not identify ourselves professionally as play therapists:

1) When we seek licensure it is not as a “Play Therapist.” Rather, we are licensed as Psychologists, Social Workers, or Licensed Professional Counselors. Our licensure has status and meaning to fellow clinicians and referral sources that the title “Play Therapist” will never convey. When we identify ourselves as Play Therapists we suggest that is all we do. Hopefully, that s not true for most clinicians!

2) From a pragmatic point of view, I believe we obtain more and better quality referrals, by being identified by our licensure title. It allows us to become known as clinicians who have a variety of intervention strategies to treat our clients. Play therapy should be one technique or intervention that we can intelligently apply to the treatment of an individual.

3) Effective treatment planning and communication of an appropriate treatment plan is not facilitated by an identifying ourselves as Play Therapists. Play therapy is a generic term and there are many ways of doing play therapy. Back in the stone age of managed care therapists in our town were routinely dismayed when a case manager denied more sessions for play therapy. “Play therapy” was a red flag for case managers. Along the same lines, clinicians who tried to sign up on panels as “Play Therapists” were frequently denied membership on panels or didn’t receive referrals from insurance company case managers. Unfortunately, writing treatment plans that are accepted by case managers continues to be an underappreciated talent in graduate school and training programs. The Practice Planners series has rescued us from one of the most tedious and painful aspects of practice.

I’d be curious to know how others identify themselves professionally if they have found any benefit in identifying themselves as Play Therapists.

What’s new at childtherapytoys.com?

2009-05-30T03:31:00Z

We’ve been busy upgrading our web site and adding new products. Stay tuned for our new home page and product menus. We’ve added a Savings Center to organize reduced and clearance items and make them easier to find. Our new gift certificate has added functionality and will keep track of multiple expenditures until completely used up. It is no longer necessary to spend the entire gift certificate on a single order, and it can now be applied to shipping charges as well.

We’ve added dozens of new products with more to come over the next six months. New items include three new play sets: Army, Fire Fighter, and Police Officer. We’ve added a deluxe tool set, medical set, Gumby, Pokey, and lots more. Our sand trays have been improved and have a more durable finish and are made of renewable Alder wood. We’ve added dozens of new miniatures in the past year and now have over 600 sand play miniatures.

As always, we remain open to your feedback and suggestions for products. To be added to our email list send us a note: toys@childtherapytoys.com.

Intelligent Anger

2009-05-29T15:50:00Z

I often use board games in my sessions but find that some kids just don’t like board games, and many boys, obsessed with their video games, find them especially tedious. However, I have had a very positive experience with the Intelligent Anger board game.

Intelligent Anger is designed to teach young people specific skills that will help them look objectively at anger-provoking situations and react in a thoughtful, assertive, and respectful way. I played this game yesterday with 3 fifth grade boys. I was surprised by how positively they reacted to the game. Two of the boys seem to spend most of their free time playing video games, yet really enjoyed the game. The game presents a variety of anger provoking scenarios that must be overcome. The boys seemed to appreciate and understand the solutions offered and found the scenarios closely matched anger-provoking situations they’d experienced. While the game utilizes a Social Information Processing Model of anger and aggression, it is not necessary for the clinician to be familiar with this model. This model holds that many young people are prone to aggressive behavior because they lack good cognitive skills for dealing with anger-provoking situations and is illustrated very well by the board game. The Intelligent Anger board game is also very helpful in provoking conversation and developing insight into the child’s behavior when frustrated or angry.

Websites from TherapySites.com

2009-03-07T18:49:00Z

These days, if someone is in need of a particular kind of service, their first move is often straight to the internet to narrow down what they are looking for and decide on the best place to find it. As many therapists are now aware, this most certainly extends to their practice. Since people no longer have to settle for the scant information provided in a phonebook, the information, functionality, and presentation of a practitioner’s website has become an essential component in attracting new clients and maintaining a strong client base.

Of course, the idea of creating and keeping up with a website can seem quite daunting. And, indeed, developing an exceptional one is no easy task. I was recently introduced to TherapySites.com, which provides the excellent and affordable service of doing all the hard stuff for you and helping you launch and maintain a site that attracts as many potential clients as possible and lends your practice the credibility it deserves. The features offered can also make a huge difference in the efficiency of how your office is run. Does having all new patient paperwork completed before they arrive sound good to you? I must say I find it pretty appealing and certainly the patient wouldn't mind either.

Right now, ChildTherapyToys.com has arranged a very SPECIAL deal with TherapySites that allows for a one-month free trial for anyone who wants to check it out. All you have to do is enter the following promo code: promoCTT.

The truth is, the internet has made competition fierce and a informative and convenient website can make all the difference to a person in need of service they can trust. Below are a couple of articles from TherapySites that detail what they can do for your practice and why it's important that it be done.

Websites for Therapists - Why You Need a Website

How To Bring Your Therapy Practice Into the 21st Century

Bridges and Sandplay

2009-02-09T21:37:00Z

The following was submitted by reader Rebecca Moise. It's an insightful look at the symbolism of bridges used by children in sand tray therapy. I thought I'd share with everyone else.

"In your most recent entry it was mentioned many play therapists have found bridges to be one of the most frequently used sand-tray miniatures. This has also been my experience. Bridges, or moving across a bridge, are also found in dreams. There are times in the sand tray, or in dreams, when one meaning of this is strongly indicated. This can represent the experience of moving from one state to another. The child's inner world is changing as she grows and develops. She is much aware of moving from one arrangement of instinctual energy to others that may impose a quite different set of interests and abilities: infant to toddler, toddler to child, younger child to older child, older child to teen, teen to adult. These are monumentally important processes the child actively works on mastering as he plays. Very young children I see in my practice often reach automatically for one of the several bridge miniatures I have available to place these in the sand. They may run cars over these or have people or animal miniatures moving across these. Older children may use bridges to connect two parts of sand tray scenes they are creating. Teens or adults may find more elaborate, symbolic uses for bridge miniatures, as they create worlds that more clearly represent their life journey. Bridges are an important part of my collection of miniatures. Other frequently used miniatures include treasure, jewels or shiny objects of all sorts, strands of beads, weapons and fighting, including both war scenes and fighting dangerous animals, babies, witches, Disney figures. . . well the list goes on and on, but bridges are certainly high on the list."

Thanks, Rebecca. If anyone else would like to share their knowledge or experiences, please post a comment or send us an email.

Conflict Resolution Games for Kids

2009-01-04T19:55:00Z

We are so fortunate to be therapists now with so many resources available to work with children. There are days that I think my entire practice consists of children who can’t get along with peers or siblings. In addition to allowing time for play and discussion, I find that board games and role play are really useful for teaching cooperation skills.

Here is a partial list and description of some of the relevant games available from childtherapytoys.com. Learn more about each game by clicking on the game title.

Both The Social and Emotional Competence Game and My First Therapy Game (ages 6-14) are excellent for getting to know children and helping them to begin thinking about cooperating, sharing, communicating and other social skills necessary for conflict resolution. A very nice series of games that foster social and emotional competence and help avoid getting into conflict are: No More Arguments, No More Teasing, and No More Bullies (ages 6-12).

Many children with conflict issues also have anger issues and need strategies to “cool down” before they can cooperate and resolve conflicts. Both the The Angry Monster Machine Game (ages 5-10) and Furious Fred (ages 7-12) are helpful (see earlier post about games for anger management). More recently published games include Intelligent Anger (ages 10-14) and Escape from Anger Island (ages 6-12).

Of course, The Conflict Resolution Game (ages 6-12) and Conflict Busters (ages 7-12) are obvious choices. Treasure Time (ages 6-12 & ages 5-8) is available in two versions and addresses a range of issues associated with cooperation and resolving conflict. Many children experience conflict because they don’t understand the connection between behavior and consequences. Rules & Reason (ages 5-10) is a board game that addresses this issue. Consequences teaches similar skills and is fun for younger children (ages 3-10). Always Play Fair (ages 6-12) uses a sports theme to discuss pro-social behaviors.

Journey to Friendsville (ages 6-12) is a new game that teaches a variety of skills, including conflict resolution. Understanding others, empathy, and effective communication are necessary skills for conflict resolution. Another new game, from the author of the Ungame, is Out of Your Mind (ages six through adult). I also like A Day in the Life (ages 6-12), which takes players through the day of someone who must handle multiple conflicts with peers and authority figures.

Sand Tray Scrapbook: Recent Separation

2008-12-19T15:45:00Z

Here's some pictures from one of my recent sand tray sessions with a child who's parents were having marital difficulties.

Tray two: The father recently initiated a separation , without notice. Father has just been knocked over with a cannon ball ...

Tray one: Father initiated a separation. Family and family friends look on ...

Interested in sand tray therapy? Please feel free to add your comments and send in your own pictures. Include a brief note about each picture. Email jcwilburn@gmail.com

Sand Tray Scrapbook: Bipolar Disorder

2008-12-19T15:35:00Z

The first tray is from a session with a child with diagnoses of Bipolar Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and Mental Retardation. He stated he didn’t want to come to the session that day, but would do a sand tray. Completed his tray and walked out!

The next two trays were completed by a child with normal intellectual functioning and a diagosis of Bipolar Disorder. He has a life time history of rageful and out of control behavior that has only begun to get under control in the last 12 months. He is now 12 years old.

Interested in sand tray therapy? Please feel free to add your comments and send in your own pictures. Include a brief note about each picture. Email jcwilburn@gmail.com

Sand Tray Scrapbook: Asperger's

2008-12-19T15:12:00Z

I thought it might be fun and to start a series of entries with pics from my own sand tray sessions. It's interesting to see the results of sand tray therapy in the context of various difficulties and disorders the participant is struggling with.

This first picture is from a session with a child with Asperger's.

The child was referred for anxiety and school problems. He spent a lot of time pouring sand over walls and was very adamant that he wanted monster (barely discernable in the middle of the picture) to be seen.

If you are interested in Sand Tray Therapy or want to share your own sand tray experiences, leave a comment or email your pictures with a brief note about each to jcwilburn@gmail.com. I think this could be a great feature that many people could participate in.