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Pros And Cons Of Adlerian Play Therapy

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While there are multiple studies on working with children with externalizing and anxiety issues in general, many of them do not investigate Adlerian play therapy. Adlerian play therapy says that “people are unique and creative, they strive toward belonging and connection with others, and they create fictional goals that influence their behaviors. Social interest is an important concept of Adlerian play therapy” (Meany-Walen, Kottman, Bullis & Taylor, 2015 ). In fact, 40% of the studies in this paper are the first of their kind. Many of the articles included in this review have limitations including small sample sizes, small age range, and teachers and caregivers being involved in the process of picking and evaluating students for these studies. …show more content…

Schools participating in the studies were generally ethnically diverse, and in each study there was more than one race being represented. Many of these schools were title one (Blanco & Ray, 2010), which means that students’ families may not be as financially stable as the families in other schools and many of the students are at risk of failure or dropping out. In these schools, students who do need mental health support will likely not get it. A few of the studies had children drop out because they were put on medication for mental health issues, and were not compliant with their medication, as well as excessive absences (Meany-Walen, Bullis, Kottman &Taylor, 2015). Most of the studies picked participants by way of parent and teacher evaluation of children’s behavior. Depending on the study, children received between five and 17 play therapy sessions during their respective …show more content…

One study (Stulmaker & Ray, 2015) used the revised children’s’ manifest anxiety scale, two studies made use of teacher report form, three of the studies used the direct observation form, one study used the index of teaching stress, and the young children’s’ achievement test, as well as the caregiver-teacher report form were used. The use of the same instrument in many of the articles increases their reliability. These studies are an important step in helping students get the education and counseling that many of them need. Instead of sending students with disruptive behaviors, or anxiety to the principal or other disciplinary personnel, if counselors are educated in Adlerian play therapy they may be able to help cut down on disciplinary action, and give the children the help that they need in order to be successful in school and life. The results of these studies indicate that for the most part Adlerian play therapy is beneficial for anxiety, externalizing behavior, and improving academic achievement. The only mixed result is counseling students with off task behaviors. This may be because “off task” can have a very broad definition depending on the classroom and the

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