A multiple case study approach was employed in this
intensive thematic analysis of the process of nondirective play
therapy. Using a naturalistic research paradigm, this study
undertook to identify and describe the principal verbal and play
themes and their transformations emergent over a course of play
therapy, as well as to identify and describe similarities and
differences between the themes emergent in those two domains.
Play and verbalization, two types of symbolic expression, were
considered routes of access to the child’s evolution of personal
meaning.
The research participants in this multiple case study were 4
preschoolers, aged 3 to 4. Each participant received 20 weekly
play therapy sessions which were videotaped and transcribed.
Running notations were made on the verbatim transcripts as to
participants’ play activities. Separate coding schemes were
devised for the emergent play and verbal themes. Supplemental
data collection, organization, and analysis procedures included a
field notebook with post hoc descriptions of the sessions,
session summary sheets profiling play and verbal themes, charts,
and memos.
This study, discovery-oriented and exploratory in nature,
yielded rich descriptions of the intricacies of therapeutic
change on two symbolic levels. From these descriptions were
extracted not only information on the transformations in play and
verbal themes but also an understanding of the qualitative
changes which denote the phases of therapy, and insight into the
process of evolving meaning across these phases.
A central finding of this study was that the arrays of play
and verbal themes and their patterns of transformations were
highly individualized. However, a number of themes emerged in
common to all cases: Exploration, Aggression, Messing, Distress,
and Caregiving or Nurturance. Participants were observed to work
through contrasting themes, with preschoolers’ therapy
characterized as an active struggle with such intense,
oppositional forces as birth and death, injury and recovery, loss
and retrieval. Typical thematic transformations included
movement from infantile vulnerability to mastery, from grief
toward resolution, from fear to safety and protection.
The beginning phase of therapy was found to be typified by
exploratory play. The middle phase was typified by intensified
involvement in play and by experiences of disinhibition. The end
phase was characterized by two contrasting yet not mutually
exclusive tendencies, namely, the introduction of a sense of
hopefulness, confidence, and integration; and an improved
capacity to deal with difficult psychological material. Entry
into the middle and end phases was signalled by qualitative
shifts in the child’s attentional, tensional, or relational
state.
The theoretical implications of this study included insight
into the critical role of the child’s initiative and of the
therapist’s permissiveness in the unfolding of symbolic
expression. Each individual case contained specific theoretical
implications for such classic problem and treatment phenomena as
developmental delay and play disruptions.
The practical implications of this study include emphasizing
the need for practitioners to counterbalance attention to the
child’s verbal expression with attention to transformations in
play activity and play material usage. It is suggested that
further research extend the ramifications of this exploratory
study by examining the themes occurring in treatment within
homogeneous populations according to problem configuration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/3010 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Levin, Susan Charlotte |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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