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Interpersonal Physiology Of Play Analysis

Decent Essays

I really enjoyed reading about play therapy as it’s a theory I’ve had the least experience with in my educational background. With that being said, I found the theory extremely interesting. The idea that play can move clients from unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories to a more conscious level of understanding is central to play therapy.

I thought the readings this week were quite different content wise. Theresa A. Kestly’s work, “The Interpersonal Neurobiology of Play” had a more scientific take, allowing us to understand the neurobiology behind play and play experiences. Kestly discusses Panksepp’s Motivational Circuits, Porges Polyvagal Theory, the importance of Infant-Parent play and regulation, play in attachment terms, play in regards to the nervous system, Bruce Perry’s works on the Brain, and many other prominent theories and theorist within the field. Overall, I feel like Kestly provided a lot of supporting content and information for play therapy. …show more content…

I found Boik and Goodwin’s step-by-step manual of “Sandplay Therpy” extremely interesting as they did a great job describing the different stages within a session. They gave everything from suggestions about what to expect throughout the stages, cues in regards to behaviors, non-verbal and verbal communication other features to observe, approximately how long each stage will take, and so much more. I appreciated how specific the manual got, for example, they provided so many nicely worded phrases throughout! I also liked the case examples with individual clients, it showed how the theory can be applied to a diverse population (i.e. many different ages and varying concerns). I found this reading to be something I would definitely go back to

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