Play Therapy

Play therapy works by allowing a child to play with anxiety problems in different ways.  Using play therapy for Claudia’s case will help her to open up emotionally which in turn will let her cope in a society where she feels unsafe. To help Claudia a therapist will make an observation or ask questions, gently guiding her towards discovering a set of skills that work to establish or strengthen her strengths and to minimize or change thoughts of fear that do not serve her best interests. A therapist will suggest new behaviors through play, and this will work a thousand times better than teaching or disciplining a child (Taylor, 2009). Children learn new behaviors and coping skills such as patience, analysis, and emotional organization through play. Thus, the play would be effective in helping Claudia deal with her fears towards people within her community.

To address Claudia’s fears and anxieties connected to the attack she saw near her home, I would create a near possible environment that will help her face her fears through therapy. What is important to understand, is that Claudia has gone through a certain amount of mild to moderate trauma when after she witnessed mugging near her home. That happened because of a change in how she viewed people and the environment she is accustomed to (Mohammadinia et al., 2019). Therefore, it is incumbent upon me to take action to ease the Claudia trauma by replicating a similar environment, by play, storytelling, or acting out. To ease her fear, I will talk to Claudia I in every session asking her about her activities at school and thereafter express visible appreciation, joy, and encouragement while verbally repeating all those activities so that she learns to quickly feel comfortable. I will also help her feels that she is indeed in a secure place and no longer needs the parent’s psychological support. Positive strokes by way of something that Claudia likes to eat, or play or hear some story, can be applied as a mark of appreciation. After a few months, Claudia will feel comfortable and learn to lean away from her parents.

References

Mohammadinia, N., Fatemi, F. S., Nasiri, M., & Pirnia, B. (2019). The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy on Anxiety and Academic Achievement among Children with LD. International Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences, 5(1), 41-48.
https://dx.doi.org/10.22037/ijabs.v5i1.23334

Taylor, E. R. (2009). Sandtray and solution-focused therapy. International Journal of Play Therapy, 18(1), 56.  https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014441