Adlerian Play Therapy

Key Concepts of Adlerian Play Therapy The Adlerian Play Therapy originated by Terry Kottman in 1994 in which he incorporates the theory of Individual Psychology into the operation of play therapy (Taylor & Bratton, 2014). There are a few key concepts that Adlerian Play Therapists hold while conducting the play therapy session. There are a total of four key concepts of Adlerian Play Therapy. The first key concept of Adlerian Play Therapy (AdPT) that is also the key concept of Individual Psychology is that the therapists believe that every people are of creative beings, socially embedded and directed towards his or her goal where there are purpose and goals behind every behavior (Taylor & Bratton, 2014). Socially embedded human beings means

The concept of social interest refers to the recognition of being attached or connected to other people in the social context and also a favorable point of view towards other beings in the world (Corey, 2009). Every social being have the ability or desire to be connected with other people. Every child that was referred to the play therapy was reported to have a low level of social interest as compared to their peers and the play therapist’s aim was to increase their social interest (Kottman, 2001). Play therapists help the children by stimulating their ability to build and maintain relationship through activities conducted during the therapy session. The therapists will encourage positive interaction and broaden the children’s social skills so that they will know how to interact and stay connected with people in their social context (Kottman,

Play therapists don’t believe that children were born to act that way rather there were reasons behind every actions. There are a total of four basic purposes for the child’s behavior that are to seek attention, to seek power, to seek revenge and to prove inadequacy (Dreikurs & Soltz, 1964 as cited in Taylor & Bratton, 2014). Throughout the play therapy process, the therapist will works toward uncovering the purpose of children’s misbehavior. They identified the purpose of the child’s behavior by a few steps. They (a) observed child’s behavior during the session and listen to the description of teachers and parent about the unaccepted behavior of the child, (b) examine how the adult react emotionally when they encounter the unaccepted behavior of the child and (c) look out to how the child reacts to the correction of the behavior before asking them questions about it (Kottman,