Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj
Introduction
Play is the movement of freedom says Bally (1964). While Groos (in Bally 1964)
argues that the purpose of play is the elimination of hostile feelings and

fear.

According to Huizinga (1971), if we try to sum up the formal characteristics of play, we

could consider it as a voluntary activity or engagement, performed
determined time and space boundaries, following freely

within clearly

consented, but absolutely

obligatory rules, endowed with a purpose in itself; it can be consciously taken as not
serious and external to habitual life, but at the same time able to intensely and totally
absorb the player.
Playtherapy tends to be a generic term to describe all kinds of therapeutic work with
children , from Melanie kleins psychoanalitic playtherapy to Margaret Lowenfelds Sand
Tray therapy. Balister (1997) describes there types :
1. Psychodrama
2. DramaTherapy
3. Playtherapy
A theoretical framework
Theory of personal constructs
Kelly (1955) stresses the importance of recognizing the uniqueness of each persons view
of reality. Core constructs1, for the child, may well be peripheral for the therapist, and
vice versa. Defense mechanisms spring into action if ones core constructs are challenged
without due notice, or without respect for ones right to retain them. To challenge without
respect a childs view of reality is a therapists path to rejection. The child will
immediately become inaccessiblewith the tantalizing thoroughness children have
perfected when guarding private territory. Core constructs can be changed only when one
1

System of constructs that child uses to to make sense of the world and all that
happens.

Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj
is ready to make adjustments to the whole interdependent system, and this happens rarely.
Kelly also said that if he was to be remembered at all, he hoped it would not be for
having invented his theory of personal constructs, but rather for what he called his First
Principle. This was: If you dont know what is wrong with the patient, ask him, he may
tell you (Kelly 1955:12).2
Also according to Anne Banister (1997) it is important to be informed about child
development in different levels and she gives suggestion to include here bioecological
systems theory by Bronfenbrenner , the emotional development referring to Melanie
Klein and John Bowlbys theories, cognitive development referring to Piaget and sexual
development referring to Sgroi 1988 or Gil and Johnson 1993.

Child development and Spontaneity theory in psychodrama

Moreno (Moreno, 1946, 1985) spoke of psychodrama as a therapy of relationships.
Morenos method also emphasizes respect as Kellys. It requires the director to check
with the protagonist, seeking clarifying information, whenever in doubt as to significant
detail. Moreno calls it social investigation. The whole psychodrama technique depends,
for its healing power, on the directors ability to honor the protagonists inner world and,
from within it, to make challenging and extending interventions in a non- manipulative
way.
According to the child developmental theory, a baby interacts with his mother (or father,
or any other signicant person) inside and through the mothers womb. Upon his birth,
he/she enters the realm of relational interactions. It is within this rst social atom that the
newborn baby begins to learn about the world, through actions such as crying, screaming,
smiling, laughing, making noises, pointing his ngers, etc. And it is through the actions
of people in his environment who respond or dont respond to his claims and needs, who
come or dont come when he beckons, that the baby begins to establish the rst links
between action and reaction. Obviously he/she experiences a stage of natural codependency. Moreno calls it the childs rst universe (all-identity, then all-reality
leading to the beginning of his/her differentiation from his/her mother). The baby
2

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.4

Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj
already experiences roles, without however acknowledging this consciously. The second
universe produces a true distinction between experience and its representation. The infant
will consciously play out various roles with his teddy bear, his dolls or his toys and will
become aware of the roles he is granted by his environment. Thus develops the Self. The
various characters enacted in his games embody these dynamics that he/she needs to
explore through the interaction that he/she creates. Through the spontaneity and the
creativity of the childs games and his/her initial development, he/she is developing
his/her capacity of adjusting and evolving his/her actions, his/her interactions and roles in
order to optimize his/her capacity to adapt to his/her reality.
Observing the infants lengthy period of dependency, Moreno described it as:
An eager apprenticeship, progressing, maturing and graduating into a world which is
incomparably more complicated than the world into which the primate infant graduates,
and for whose successful integration he needs incomparably greater resourcefulness (the
s factor) (Moreno 1946:67).3 He sees that as a readiness of the subject to respond as
required. It is a conditiona conditioningof the subject; a preparation of the subject
for free action. Moreno saw spontaneity as going beyond what genes and social forces
determine and as being a factor that was as capable of measurement and examination as
were intelligence, memory, association, etc. (Moreno and Moreno 1944:44). He
postulated that spontaneity and creativity should be regarded as primary and positive
phenomena, and not as derivatives of libido or any other animal drive (ibid: 7)4.

The way in
According to Anne Banister (1997) it is important to know oneself and have a
background history of the child itself. The therapist needs to approach this first session
(and, indeed, all others) with an awareness of the background presence of the pastfor
the therapist, as well as for the child and the parents, the phenomena of transference and
3

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.13
4

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.15

Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj
counter- transference can come into play, with expectations, fears and problems
transferred from the past. (Sulzberger-Wittenberg 1970:17)5.Every time one confronts a
child in a clinical setting the analyst is faced with his own representation of childhood
and the weight of his unconscious motivation will make itself felt in the manner in which
he handles the treatment. (Mannoni, 1967)6.Also it is important to have an interview with
parents or significant adults in the childs daily life. The main purpose of this interview
has two components: firstly, to allow the parents to clarify their reasons for seeking
therapy for the child and, at the same time, to assess their degree of comfort in working
with this particular therapist; secondly, to give the therapist background information that
is accessible only via the parents or care-givers. To the parents, the therapist makes it
clear that the insights they have gained through years of living with the child have a value
of their own, and they will not be ignored. The therapist cannot reach a disturbed child if
the parents require every detail of the session to be revealed to them; but neither can the
parents co-operate with the therapy if they are told nothing. The balance that needs to be
struck varies from family to family.
First sessions
Many children we see as therapists are aware of adults as potentially condescending
authority figures, before whom they have been landed because someone has decided they
need to be fixed. A mixture of resentment and fear can cause them to activate their
impenetrable defense mechanisms if this perception remains. But let us never forget that
just as the therapist is observing the child, so too the child is summing up the therapist.
And the childs observations are likely to be highly accurate. The relationship- centered
therapy that follows is strongly influenced by this first session ( Hoey 1997, p. 25).
Bannister A (1997) emphasizes the importance of making agreements with child and
creating him/her safety and containing environment and making boundaries. Sometimes
it is important also to make agreements about the toys or equipments which will be used.
5

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.13
6

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.23

Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj
They can decide to choose their most important items, puppets and space they want to
use.
Working Through- Following childs agenda.
Alice Miller7 in the book Banished Knowledge (1990) quoted Stettbacher on the process
of therapy:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Describing the situation and ones emotions

Experiencing and expressing emotions
Querying the situation
Articulating needs

Children are not small adults. Abused children whose voices have never been heard will
communicate in other means. If they are unable to play they will show their pain by their
actions. They will use the format used by someone they trust, they will find a way if the
listener is patient enough to wait and it is creative enough to understand and accept this
mode of communication which the child is using.

An understanding of childrens

development, both psysical and psychologiscal, is important for therapist whether they
are working with children or adults(Bannister1997,p.16)
Balister mentions in her book The Healing Drama (1997) different approaches from
writing, to telling stories that are willing to continue for some time ( Cattanach, 1992), to
stories that children invent by writing or painting a story in 6 steps (Lahad 1992) and
acting it out within a group ( Bannister in Jennings 1995)8.
Fairy stories ( Bannister 1997 ) or therapeutical fairy tales (Hoey 1997) are important to
child because they recognize the struggle for acceptance which the central character
always faces, it has qualities that are appreciated and they may have a difficult road
before they win through. When the conscious mind is provided with one message (in the
form of concepts, ideas, stories, images) which keeps it occupied, another therapeutic
message can be slipped to the unconscious mind via implication and connotation....
7

Cited in Bannister, A. (1997). The healing drama: Psychodrama and dramatherapy with abused
children. London: Free Association Books, p. 10

Cited in Bannister, A. (1997). The healing drama: Psychodrama and dramatherapy with abused
children. London: Free Association Books, p. 75-77

Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj
While the conscious mind is listening to the literal aspects of the anecdote, the carefully
designed, interspersed suggestions are activating unconscious associations and shifting
meanings which accumulate and finally spill over into consciousness. (Mills and
Crowley 1986)9 The right brain activity is reflected in the labile, imagistic play of the
children, in the metaphor-charged therapeutic stories, and in the intrinsic power of the
puppets and toys to evoke multiple associations. Both (Hoey 1997, Bannister 1997) they
use Bettleheim to emphasize the importance of the process of acting through his tales
individually first then when strengthened in group. (Bannister, 1997). I realized that
these tales, in a much deeper sense that any other reading material, start where the child
really is in his psychological and emotional being. They speak about his severe inner
pressures in a way that the child unconsciously understands, andwithout belittling the
most serious struggles which growing up entailsoffer examples of both temporary and
permanent solutions to pressing difficultiesdominant culture wishes to pretend,
particularly where children are concerned, that the dark side of man does not exist, and
professes a belief in an optimistic meliorism. (Bettleheim 1976:7, 8)10
Presenting the polarities of character permits the child to comprehend easily the
difference between the two, which he could not do as readily were the figures drawn
more true to life, with all the complexities that characterize real people. Bettleheim
stresses the importance of not disturbing the connections that are going on within the
child by superimposing an adult interpretation of a fairy tale, and the same holds true for
a therapeutic story. Explaining to a child why a fairy tale is so captivating to him
destroys, moreover, the storys enchantment, which depends to a considerable degree on
the childs not quite knowing why he is delighted by it. And with the forfeiture of this
power to enchant goes also a loss of the storys potential for helping the child struggle on
his own, and master all by himself the problem which has made the story meaningful to
him in the first place. In the case of therapeutic storytelling, there are added, and very
9

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.30
10

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.35

Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj
important, reasons why the therapist should not explain the symbolism. If the childs
defence mechanisms need to remain in place, and the therapist has made a mistake in
timing (or, for that matter, in interpretation), the child enjoys the story for its own sake
and the inner meaning is undetected. Bettleheim describes it :
In order to master the psychological problems of growing up...a child needs to understand
what is going on within his conscious self so that he can also cope with what goes on in
his unconscious. He can achieve this understanding, and with it the ability to cope, not
through rational comprehension of the nature and content of his unconscious, but by
becoming familiar with it through spinning out daydreamsruminating, re-arranging,
and fantasizing about suitable story elements in response to unconscious pressures. By
doing this, the child fits unconscious content into conscious fantasies, which then enable
him to deal with that content. (Bettleheim 1976:18, 19) 11 For the therapist, many skills
and much patience are involved in the creation of a healing story that makes no intrusions
on the childs freedom the fairy tales power to help a child to understand himself and to
understand life. A similar process goes on in play. When this play is extended and further
energized by Morenos methods, the images gain new power. The children go on to make
life-enhancing connections, often at quite unexpected depths, but in the silence of their
own minds. Jung describes the transformation that ensues: When there is merely the
image, then there is simply a word picture of little consequence. But by being charged
with emotions, the image gains numinosity (or psychic energy); it becomes dynamic, and
consequences of some kind must flow from it. (Jung 1964:96)12
Working with resistance
Not all children move with imaginative freedom and trust. Not all children come to to
emerge spontaneously through metaphoric play, and some children cannot play at all
especially in case of abuse (Bannister 1997).

In this case she suggests a careful

11

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.37
12

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.38

Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj
assessment which should include:
1. The child developmental level ( play development, teachers, pediatrician,)
2. The attachment or the bonding the child has with the parents (Direct observation,
social workers report)
3. The child coping mechanisms (Parents information, number of ways a child can
cope with reality)
4. The childs emotional and therapeutic needs at present (Actual therapist)
For each child must be approached within a context that is comprehensible to him or to
her, and the path to communication with each child is unique. The therapist sometimes
there is a need to keep exploring a variety of approachestesting, discarding, inventing
until the way in has been found.(Hoey, 1997). The first group includes children whose
lives had been disrupted again and again, usually within the public welfare system.
Another group of children displaying lack of freedom with the puppets could be
described as children who were guarding a secret. In each case, it was a secret connected
with sexual abuse. A third group, the nature of whose resistance involved lack of rapport
with the puppets and discomfort with unstructured play. This group included children
whose imaginative powers were limited, for a variety of reasons or linked with traumatic
experiences.
Klain says We sometimes encounter resistances which are hard to overcome. This most
usually means that we have come up against a childs anxiety and sense of guilt
belonging to deeper layers of its mind. (Klein 1932 : 9)13
In working with resistance, the therapist has three main tasks (Hoey, 1997):
. 1 To respect the childs defence mechanismsacknowledging their existence; offering
a gentle challenge where appropriate; never forcing a way past them.
13

Cited in Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child
therapy. New York: Routledge. p.125

Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj
. 2 To develop increasingly refined hypotheses, based on observation, as to what might
lie at the centre of this childs difficulties.
. 3 To search, with ever-sharpening accuracy, for the right therapeutic medium for each
particular childbearing in mind the childs cultural background, stage of
development, particular interests and skills; and working always within the
context of the therapeutic relationship.
Working with children demands great flexibility. Their resistances call on the
psychodrama directors ingenuity even more fully than do their flights of metaphorical
playchallenging, demanding alternative pathways, calling for patient, unremitting
persistence. And all the while, the therapist is acknowledging the need to adapt the
psychodramatic techniques normally used with adults.

Sources :
1. Bannister, A. (1997). The healing drama: Psychodrama and dramatherapy with
abused children. London: Free Association Books.
2. Hoey, B. (1997). Who calls the tune? A psychodramatic approach to child therapy.
New York: Routledge.

Psychodrama work with children

Renina Varfaj