Play, joy, and spontaneity are rooted in all of our hearts. Infants, driven by curiosity in their quest for survival, playfully explore with their entire bodies the universe around them that is then translated into an inner world. Manipulation of the relationship between this inner self and the external world is a primary tool for growth. For adults, play continues as an important vehicle because it fosters numerous adaptive behaviors including creativity, role rehearsal, and mind/body integration.
Carl Jung once said, “The small boy (himself) is still around, and possesses a creative life which I lack. But how can I make my way to it?” (Jung, 1965, p. 174). He subsequently learned that a key to unlocking his creative potential was to engage in the constructive play he had particularly enjoyed as a child.
Frey (1983) describes four categories of children’s play: physical, manipulative, symbolic, and games. Adult activities in each of these categories hold enormous creative potential. In her book Your Child’s Growing Mind, Dr. Jane Healy (1994) discusses techniques for creative people. These include play, humor, dramatizing, moving, imagining, listening, expressing, originating, and incubating. These qualities, too, are an intrinsic part of growth and are found in the literature on play therapy for adults.
In their play, animals practice survival skills by engaging in play fighting and hunt and pounce games. We humans aren’t so different. Children bandage imaginary hurts; spend hours pretending to cook, shop, travel, and go to school; and be everything from a firefighter to ballet dancer. They enact funerals, weddings, births, and literally all of life’s milestones as they practice adaptive behaviors and grown-up roles.
Adults do the same thing, although in much subtler ways. How many of us have thought about or even had conversations aloud with ourselves in anticipation of a talk with someone else? How long do we stand in front of our mirrors trying on outfits, swaying to imagined music to be sure of how it (or I) will look? How often do we sit in awe at the circus and wish we could ride the elephants, too? And of course, there is the old favorite Halloween when, at last, we’re allowed to play dress up!
Play is a wholistic experience in that it invites our total being into the process. Starting at the top: It uses both hemispheres of our brain. The left, analytical, side is essential in deciding what to do next, which strategies get us the win, and how it can be verbalized. The right, artistic, side allows us to enjoy the experience of turning the shapes of the clouds into magical creations. Moreover, the value and impact of beta-endorphins on our overall sense of well-being is well known.
Moving down into the body, we can look at other major systems. When we are laughing, singing, moving about happily, or simply engrossed in a pleasant diversion (i.e., play), we tend to take fuller breaths, thus getting a better oxygen exchange. When our digestive process relaxes, we reduce the chances of gastrointestinal disorder-not to mention the easing of cardiac tension. General muscle tension is eased, as well, when we play, which reduces fatigue and generalized body aches and stiffness.
Play can increase our self-esteem. It invites access to states of well-being and calm as well as silliness and joy. When relaxed in play, we often have an increased capacity for empathy and intimacy. Play is affirming. Diana Fosha (2000) describes joy and emotional pain among the affective markers of healing. Play becomes a natural and gentle environment in which the inner landscape can safely be explored in any language. The results are easy to see.
Stress Release
We are, generally, a nation of adults who must relearn the art of playfulness. Actually, most folks are quite willing. They just need permission.
The staff gathered, notebooks in hand, for its regular staff meeting. The group knew the speaker on the agenda, and they expected an in-service; but what they got was two hours of pure fun.
The director of the agency had arranged (unbeknownst to her staff) for a play shop as a holiday gift. The table was cleared and teams were formed (everybody won). Markers, sparkles, and stickers were used to decorate goody bags for carrying the prizes (candy bars, erasers, and other such treasures) and snack foods (nothing too healthful) appeared. The games had noeducational value whatsoever, but their healing potential was undeniable. It was amazing to watch these professional caregivers emerge into creative, spontaneous, silly, and often quite loud playmates.
Business leaders are discovering the power of play to refresh, nurture, and reduce stress. Organizational development professionals often work with staff in playful ways to invite the most genuine, rather than narrow, cognitive responses. In major corporations across America, gyms are being made available because the physical release of stress is now understood. In most stressful jobs from business executive to therapist, the interview includes at least one question on self-care. Perhaps top executives have always known this, which explains the importance of golf in business relationships.
Business awareness notwithstanding, playfulness remains a competitive art form. However, competition in the hands of a play therapist can be turned to an advantage. When caught up in a contest, our other defenses are often down; and inner truth can, and often does, emerge.
The game was simple. See who could make the longest list of answers (there were no right or wrong) to some ordinary questions.
“What things would you find at a party?”
“How many flavors of ice cream can you name?”
“How do you feel when someone you love dies?”
The “contestants” were so wrapped up in winning that filters were dropped and feelings that had never been expressed poured onto their papers. Even the guilt-provoking word relievedfound its way into the open. Some didn’t even realize what they had said and so discovered some feelings they had never admitted to themselves before. Others knew what was on their minds and the hurried competition had allowed it to slip out. All of them discovered they were not alone; others had felt the same things.
Competition, as powerful as it is, is not the only thing that invites play. Adults, like children, have a need to experience mastery. The ego is implicitly nurtured by the absence of failure. Play is the most natural tool because, in a therapeutic context, it is impossible to do wrong. As we saw with Susanna, having one’s creativity witnessed and simply accepted invites the emergent self. “It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative the individual discovers the self ” (Winnicott, 1971, p. 54).
They were just absently kneading the clay as they talked. She lined up four nondescript objects to prove that she was not at all creative.
Together they mused about the objects and the number four. A powerful memory emerged of an event that had happened when she was four years old. Through the clay, it found voice and the beginning of healing. The objects were kept in a special box and, from time to time, brought out to help piece together the puzzle of her past. The objects, though technically nondescript, clearly spoke the language of her heart.
Therapy requires assessment, which is sometimes a fairly straightforward process. At other times, it can be elusive. This becomes even more complicated when the therapy and the client are to be eyed under the floodlights of a courtroom.
She was from a foreign land and was seeking asylum based on years of repeated abuse during her adolescence. Several court psychiatrists had said it was impossible to prove her allegations, and she would be deported. Fortunately for her, a savvy law student knew about play therapy and sought a consultation.
Over the course of three visits, several techniques were used. The woman she drew when invited to draw a person had a lovely smiling face but no hands or feet. Her sand tray was filled with themes of female helplessness, abandonment, and fear. And, although of average intelligence, it took her three times as long as an average seven-year-old to put together a puzzle that she had made as a metaphor for healing after trauma.
While the discrete allegations couldn’t be proven, there was sufficient “play assessment” evidence of psychic trauma to convince the immigration attorney to drop the move for deportation and allow her to remain in the country. She is now in therapy in a sexual abuse clinic and is on her way to a peaceful life.
We must be playful because we cannot expect our clients to go anywhere that we won’t. But, playfulness is not necessarily a universal trait. A Playfulness Scale for Adults developed by Schaefer and Greenberg (1997) lists five factors: is funloving, has a sense of humor, enjoys silliness, is informal, and is whimsical. It may be useful to take a self-inventory before embarking on this kind of work.
A play therapist must be comfortable with metaphor and silence as well as words. He or she must have a courageous and trusting heart because the therapeutic use of play with adults is new territory. Like the therapist who tried out playback, we must be willing to listen to our clients and invite their wisdom into the healing plan. Playing with adults as they struggle with unseen issues is like walking in a minefield. We must be brave and very careful. Even so, it is well worth the effort. (Remember that the next time you’re vacuuming sand and cleaning paint brushes.)
It is utterly wonderful work because it brings an enormous depth to the process. Often, when talking, we see only the “now” while hearing about the “then.” Engrossed in play, however, the “then” comes fully into the room. Look into the eyes of a person smashing clay and you see the moment and truth of the pain, not just the memory. It is awesome.
Such power demands an appropriate environment. It must invite playfulness, but not appear childish for, above all, we must be respectful. One might carve out a corner of the playroom and make it the grown-up area with a small sofa or comfortable chairs. That is not to say that some people wouldn’t sit happily on the floor, but many need to find their way there more slowly. We must also be mindful that certain toys may trigger traumatic memories, so we need to have a neutral space until we know the issues.
If you are starting in an already adult office, it may be a bit easier to accumulate the toys and games in one area of the room. Adequate soundproofing is needed because play often becomes quite exuberant, and many adults can become embarrassed by their capacity for abandon. And, you don’t want to intimidate whoever is in the waiting room.
There is a story about soldiers lining opposing trenches during World War I. It was Christmas Eve and all shooting had stopped. Throughout that night and during Christmas day, first tentatively and then with greater enthusiasm, men came out of the bunkers. Carols were sung and a spontaneous soccer game broke out among the opposing soldiers to fill the hours of the truce.
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