63: Adlerian Play Therapy with Dalena Dillman Taylor, PhD, LPC, RPT

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Dr. Taylor is an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida.

She’s also the Center for Play Therapy Training and Research Director, as well as the Play Therapy Certificate coordinator.

She earned her graduate degrees from the University of North Texas.

She learned from many of the leaders in the Play Therapy world.

Dr. Taylor is trained in Adlerian Play Therapy developed in the early 1990’s by Terry Kottman, Ph.D., Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor, NCC, LMHC

Adlerian’s belief is that people’s behavior is purposeful and goal-directed. Their early childhood experiences influence their behavior, as well as how they view themselves, others and their world.

4 Phases of Adlerian Play Therapy

(1) Relationship Building – This phase of the therapy is non-directive and supports safety in the play room. By creating a shared power, the client can really feel like a significant person in their world. This phase supports building trust within the child.

(2) Investigating the Lifestyle – In this phase, the therapist becomes more directive in their work. A focus is placed on how they view themselves, others, and the world. There are a lot of things to take into consideration for the client, especially information on their personality, how do they feel like they matter in the world.

(3) Gaining Insight – At this point in the therapeutic process, the therapist has a really good idea how the child is viewing themselves, others and world. The treatment plan is developed after phase 2, once the therapist has a good idea of who the child is and how they view the world.

(4) Reorientation –In this phase, the therapist teaches the children skillsets through role play, family work, and more. One of the goals is to directly support their ability to generalize the skills in different settings to support their self-efficacy.

The therapist looks for signs that the child is ready to move into each phase.

It’s important to truly understand the child’s lifestyle.

These 3 things are across each of the categories in the lifestyle:

Goals for Change
Strategies
Progress

Parent consultation is an important component of Adlerian Play therapy. Half of the session is spent with the child and ½ of the session is spent with the parent or every other session with parent then with child is scheduled.

During the therapy, the parent is also following the 4 phases. During the parent consultation, how the parent is viewing the world is explored since it greatly influences their parenting approach.

During the parent consultation, the parent learns many of the same skills as the child, so that they can respond to the child in a different way that is supportive of the treatment plan for the child.

Dr. Taylor highly recommends reading Partners in Play by Terry Kottman 3rd Edtion.

Crucial C’s of Adlerian Play Therapy