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Guide VIII-163

Jungian analytical play therapy

John Allan, Eric J. Green, J. P. Lilly, Rosalind Heiko1978
A 30 · L 32 · M 3823 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Jungian analytical play therapy (JAPT) as set out by J. P. Lilly and Rosalind Heiko for the Association for Play Therapy (2019) and by Eric J. Green (Green 2005, VISTAS Online article 15, pp. 75–78, cited below as "Green, ACA article"; his 2011 chapter and 2014 Handbook were seen only as publisher contents pages), with John Allan's serial drawing method (1978) as the main step-by-step procedure. Sandplay in the Kalff tradition is covered in tab 154 Sandplay (Kalff) and is only cross-referred to here.

Source note. Bibliographic details follow the sources listed below: Green's ACA article (VISTAS Online 2005, pp. 75–78); Green's 2011 chapter (Foundations of Play Therapy, 2nd ed., ch. 5, pp. 61–86, from Wiley's contents page); Allan (1988) and Allan & Bertoia (1992), from the publisher's page and a library record; and the origin of the rosebush technique (Oaklander 1978, scripted by Allan & Crandall 1986). No published step-by-step protocol by Green for mandalas or fairytales was found: his training course says it teaches four steps for each, but the steps are not public, and his 2014 Handbook and 2011 chapter are cited from their contents pages. The steps given for these items are the writer's synthesis [synthesis], and any phase model in the 2011 chapter is [uncertain].

JAPT is a psychodynamic play therapy for children and adolescents built on Jung's analytical psychology. It is a theoretical orientation with a set of preferred media (free play with symbolic toys, spontaneous and serial drawing, sandplay, mandalas, fairytales, other expressive arts), not a manualised protocol. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019; Green, ACA article; JHU Press page for Green 2014]

How change happens, in the school's own terms: Lilly and Heiko write that healing comes from within the child rather than from a technique or another person, and that "healing is manifested symbolically through the process of play". In Jungian theory the unconscious speaks in images, symbols, dreams and metaphor. Painful material forms complexes, which are emotionally charged clusters around an archetypal core. In a safe, bounded space (temenos) with an attuned therapist, the child plays this material out symbolically. Jungians call the bridging of opposing pulls the transcendent function. On this account, bridging the opposites lets the ego regain balance with the unconscious. Lilly and Heiko draw on Fordham's model of deintegration and reintegration, in which the ego is stressed, falls apart a little and then reorganises at a stronger level. Allan's concept, which Green uses, is a "self-healing archetype" that the therapeutic relationship activates. All of these (archetypes, Self, complexes, transcendent function, self-healing archetype) are constructs of the Jungian school. They are working hypotheses that guide the therapist's attention, not established facts about the mind. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 40–41; Green, ACA article, p. 75; Allan 1978, pp. 223, 226]

Professional frame. JAPT is not a separately regulated profession. Practitioners are licensed or registered mental health professionals (counsellors, psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists) with further play therapy training. Lilly and Heiko hold the Association for Play Therapy's RPT-S credential (Registered Play Therapist–Supervisor), and APT is the main US credentialing body. In the UK the equivalent routes are BAPT and PTUK play therapy registration [uncertain]. Allan's background was school counselling and Jungian analysis (Pacific Northwest Society of Jungian Analysts). His publisher describes him as Professor Emeritus of Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia and a retired Jungian training analyst. Green's Handbook has an appendix on becoming a sandplay therapist, which is a separate certification route (see 154). Lilly and Heiko expect the therapist to have done personal therapy in order to manage transference. Do not offer depth interpretation of children's symbolic material without play therapy training and supervision by someone experienced in Jungian work. Allan's 1978 method was designed for teachers and day-care staff to run. Today a non-clinician should use it only under clinical supervision, with safeguarding procedures in place, and without interpretive work. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019; asknormen page on Allan; Spring Publications author page; JHU Press; Allan 1978, pp. 223, 227; synthesis for current practice]

2. Framework

The sources cited do not give a single fixed stage model. Below are the process sequence Lilly and Heiko describe and the more precise three-phase course Allan describes for serial drawing. Green's 2011 chapter (Foundations of Play Therapy, 2nd ed., pp. 61–86) is cited from its contents entry only, so any phase model in it is [uncertain]. A secondary source, a University of Pretoria thesis, reports a three-stage JAPT course of orientation, working through, and reparation/termination, which it attributes to O'Connor and Braverman (2009). [source: Chibizhe 2016] [uncertain: secondary, unverified] Allan's three phases below follow the same broad outline [synthesis].

Phase 0 — Assessment and contracting [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41; consent and safeguarding steps are synthesis]

  • Goals: understand the child in their family and developmental context.
  • What it involves: a three-generation family history; developmental, medical, learning, social and emotional history; when and why symptoms occur; trauma and developmental delays, taken "bottom-up" (body and regulation first).
  • Also: get consent from those with parental responsibility and assent from the child. Explain the limits of confidentiality in words the child can understand. Agree what parents will be told. [synthesis]
  • Format: one or two parent and caregiver meetings, plus a first meeting with the child. [synthesis]

Phase 1 — Building temenos and testing the helper (Allan: sessions 1–3)

  • Goals: the child experiences the therapist, room and frame as safe and sheltered.
  • Therapist's stance: largely non-directive. The therapist witnesses and tracks.
  • What the play or drawings show: Allan reports that early drawings often show the child's inner world of violence, disaster and helplessness. Feelings are mixed together and destructive forces win. The child is also testing whether the helper understands. [source: Allan 1978, pp. 224–225; Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]

Phase 2 — Working through (Allan: about sessions 4–7)

  • Goals: engage the disturbing material safely and let complexes show and shift in symbolic play.
  • What changes: Allan reports that feelings separate into clearer forms (depression, rage, grief). Positive and negative forces begin to coexist. Helpful figures appear, and the child shares deeper issues. The therapist becomes more active: reflecting, and interpreting within the metaphor and towards the child's life and the relationship. [source: Allan 1978, pp. 225, 227; Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]

Phase 3 — Resolution and termination (Allan: about sessions 8–10)

  • What the images show: mastery, humour, positive imagery and self-symbols such as framed self-portraits or mandala-like forms. The helper figure shrinks or disappears from the images. The child loses interest in coming.
  • The therapist's focus: point out positives and review progress. Ask how the child would cope with future upset. [source: Allan 1978, pp. 225–228]

Session count and format

  • Allan's serial drawing: 15–20 minutes, one-to-one, same time and place each week, away from other children. Daily for very disturbed children, weekly for moderately disturbed.
    • Mild-to-moderate difficulties: about 6–10 sessions.
    • Some preschoolers: 1–2 sessions.
    • Severe difficulties: 6–9 months. [source: Allan 1978, pp. 223–224]
  • Green's illustrative case ran about six months. [source: Green, ACA article, pp. 77–78]
  • Playroom-based JAPT is usually weekly, in sessions of standard therapy length. The sources cited do not give an exact length [uncertain].

Criteria for moving between phases [source: Allan 1978]

  • Phase 1 → 2: the child is engaged, the frame is stable, and helpful figures or separated feelings begin to appear. [Allan 1978, p. 225]
  • In phase 2, become more active and interpret when: ambivalent themes repeat for about four or five sessions, and the therapist has a felt sense that the child is stuck. [Allan 1978, p. 227]
  • Phase 2 → 3: mastery imagery appears, and the problems that led to referral have eased at school and at home, confirmed by teacher or parent report. [Allan 1978, pp. 226, 228]
  • Ending: Allan notes that a child asking to stop can be resistance rather than readiness. Judge it against the images and outside reports. [Allan 1978, p. 224]
  • Lilly and Heiko describe resolution as unconscious material becoming conscious, which is seen in the child's play and functioning. [Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]

3. Guiding principles

  • Healing comes from within the child. The therapist creates conditions and does not engineer outcomes. Resist steering the play towards your own idea of the solution. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 40]
  • Temenos: a safe, bounded space. Keep the same room, time, materials and ending each session. Protect the child from intrusion. Allan treats boundaries of time and space as conditions for change. Cross-refer 154 for Kalff's "free and protected space". [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41; Allan 1978, p. 223]
  • The relationship activates healing. Allan holds that the caring attachment bond activates the psyche's healing, and Green follows him with the idea of a self-healing archetype. In practice, consistency, warmth and attunement matter more than any technique. These are the school's constructs. [source: Allan 1978, pp. 226–227; Green, ACA article, p. 75]
  • Therapist as witness, container and interpreter. Track behaviour and emotion aloud. Stay self-regulated while holding intense material. Interpret sparingly and at the right time. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]
  • Stay inside the metaphor. Speak to the dragon, not about the child's father. Lilly and Heiko note that resolution is often reached without the child noticing it consciously. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]
  • Phenomenological, child-led meaning. Set aside your preconceived meanings for symbols. Ask the child what the image means to them, and read symbols in the child's cultural and family context. No symbol dictionary applies. [source: Green, ACA article, pp. 75–76]
  • Non-directive by default, directive when needed. Green describes the stance as observer-participant and non-directive or semi-directive. A directed theme can be used when critical issues arise. [source: Green, ACA article, pp. 75–76]
  • Read the series, not the single image. Following Jung, Allan held that drawings say more as a series over time. Do not draw conclusions from one picture. [source: Allan 1978, p. 223]
  • Few questions during the activity. Listen and tolerate long silences while the child works. Ask brief descriptive questions at the end. [source: Allan 1978, p. 224]
  • Unconditional acceptance and affirmation of effort. Accept the child's symbolic and developmental position as it is. Affirm effort specifically and often ("You kept working on that tower", illustrative), not the product. [source: Green, ACA article, pp. 76–77]
  • Interpret only with rapport, timing and knowledge of the family. Allan says interpretation needs knowledge of the family history and accurate empathy, and must be accepted by the child. Withdraw an interpretation the child rejects. [source: Allan 1978, p. 227]
  • Hold the tension of opposites. Allow both destructive and constructive themes in the same play without rushing to the good ending. Jungians see the new position emerging from that tension (transcendent function). [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]
  • Monitor transference and countertransference. Notice what the child stirs in you. Take it to supervision or personal therapy rather than acting it out. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41; Green, ACA article, p. 75]
  • Symbolic material is never evidence. Play, sand scenes and drawings express the child's inner world. They are not proof of abuse, trauma or any diagnosis, and must never be presented as such to parents, schools or courts. Act on safeguarding concerns through disclosures, behaviour and other evidence, following local procedures. The sources cited give no validity data for interpreting Jungian symbols. [synthesis; Birch & Carmichael 2009 note views differ on drawings as assessment]
  • Work with the family system. Lilly and Heiko place symptoms in a multigenerational family context. In practice, keep caregivers informed and involved without giving them the child's symbolic content. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41; parent detail is synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

The items below are those the cited sources name. Some sources name an intervention without giving its steps. Green's training course says it teaches four steps each for mandalas and for fairytales, but those steps are not published, and no published step-by-step version was found. His Handbook chapters are cited by title only. In these cases the steps given are marked [synthesis] or [uncertain]. Sandplay is in tab 154.

4.1 Multigenerational and developmental intake

  • Purpose: place the child's symptoms in family, developmental and trauma context before symbolic work begins. It also gives the family knowledge that Allan says interpretation needs. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41; Allan 1978, p. 227]
  • Steps:
    1. Meet the parents or carers without the child.
    2. Take three generations of family history (losses, illness, trauma, migration, patterns of relating).
    3. Take developmental, medical, learning, social and emotional history.
    4. Map when and why symptoms occur.
    5. Screen bottom-up: sensory and regulation difficulties, delays, trauma exposure. Refer for medical or developmental assessment where indicated. [synthesis]
    6. Check who holds parental responsibility and whether there are any court orders. Get written consent, and plan the child's assent. [synthesis]
    7. Explain the method to caregivers: what play therapy is, that you will not report the meaning of the child's images, what you will share, and the limits of confidentiality. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative):
    • "I'd like to understand the family your child comes from, going back to the grandparents. Patterns often travel down generations."
    • "I won't be giving you a translation of the pictures. I will tell you about themes and progress, and straight away about any safety concern."
  • Watch for: caregiver distress about their own history, which may call for a separate referral. Watch also for contested custody, where you should check consent rules, and for any information that triggers safeguarding duties.

4.2 Establishing temenos (the safe container)

  • Purpose: create the safe, sheltered frame that the school regards as the precondition for the child's self-healing. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41; Allan 1978, p. 223]
  • Steps:
    1. Use the same room, time, day and length each session. Allan used one-to-one sessions away from other children.
    2. Set out symbolic materials in a consistent layout: figures, animals, family dolls, puppets, art media. The layout is synthesis, and Lilly & Heiko mention symbolic toys only in general terms.
    3. In the first session, tell the child in simple terms what the time is for and what the few limits are (safety of the child, the therapist and the room; time). [synthesis]
    4. Lilly & Heiko note that some directive and behavioural techniques may be used to build temenos with dysregulated children. For example, use predictable openings and closings, a visual timer, and give the child a five-minute warning before the end. The examples are synthesis.
    5. Keep the materials and the child's products safe between sessions.
  • Example language (illustrative):
    • "This is your time. You can play or make almost anything you like in here. The only rules are that nobody gets hurt and the room stays safe."
    • "We have five minutes left."
  • Watch for: testing of limits, which is common in phase 1 (Allan: "Do you understand me?"). Signs the frame is working are a calmer arrival, returning to favourite materials, and play that deepens. [source: Allan 1978, p. 225]

4.3 Witnessing and tracking

  • Purpose: show the child they are seen, and regulate affect through an attuned presence. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]
  • Steps:
    1. Sit at the child's level and follow the play with your attention.
    2. Describe briefly what the child is doing and feeling: actions, intensity, emotion.
    3. Do not lead, praise the product or ask many questions. Stay self-regulated while the material is intense.
  • Example language (illustrative): "The soldiers are lined up… now they're all knocked down. That was fast and strong."
  • Watch for: tracking that becomes running commentary and intrudes; scale it back if the child turns away. When it is working, the child narrates more and invites you into the play.

4.4 Interpretation within the metaphor

  • Purpose: help unconscious material become conscious, or simply shift, without breaking the protective distance of the symbol. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41; Allan 1978, p. 227]
  • When to use: in phase 2, once rapport is firm, and especially when themes repeat without movement. [Allan 1978, p. 227]
  • Steps:
    1. Silently form hypotheses: what the play shows about the child's world, what the child is trying to communicate, how they approach the task, and what feelings are present without words. [Allan 1978, p. 227]
    2. First reflect the feeling of a character or figure.
    3. Address the figure directly. For example, ask the angry part what would help it, as Allan describes. [Allan 1978, p. 227]
    4. Only later, and only if the child seems ready, link the play to the child's life or to the therapy relationship. [Allan 1978, p. 227]
    5. If the child rejects or ignores a link, drop it and return to the metaphor.
  • Example language (illustrative):
    • To the figure: "Tiger, you look so angry. What would help you right now?"
    • Later link: "I wonder if the little rabbit who always gets left behind knows something about how it feels when Dad leaves."
  • Watch for: the child stopping play, becoming dysregulated or correcting you, which means the interpretation was mistimed or wrong. When it is working, new elements appear (a helper, a truce, a rescue) and the theme stops repeating.

4.5 Spontaneous drawing

  • Purpose: free drawing gives a sense of control and mastery and externalises feelings that talking cannot reach. Distortions, reenactments and regressions may appear in it. [source: Green, ACA article, pp. 75–76; Birch & Carmichael 2009, p. 4]
  • Steps:
    1. Offer paper and simple media. Allan used letter-size paper with pencil or crayons, and some children chose paint, plasticine or storytelling instead. [Allan 1978, p. 224]
    2. Invite the child to draw whatever they like.
    3. Stay quiet and attentive while they draw.
    4. Afterwards, ask what the symbol means to the child and invite them to voice the inner dialogue around it. [Green, ACA article, p. 76]
    5. Affirm the effort. [Green, p. 77]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Tell me about this part." "If the house could talk, what would it say?"
  • Watch for: drawings the child refuses to discuss. Accept this, since meaning can work without being put into words (Birch & Carmichael, p. 5). In Green's case, signs it was working included changes outside the room, such as better schoolwork and peer relationships, reported by the parent. [Green, p. 77]

4.6 Directive (themed) drawing

  • Purpose: focus work on a critical issue when it arises. [source: Green, ACA article, p. 76, citing Allan 1988]
  • Steps:
    1. Choose a topic linked to the child's healing, for example a safe place, a helper, or the worry as a creature. The topics are synthesis.
    2. Offer it as an invitation the child may decline.
    3. Process it as in 4.5.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Today could you draw the worry? What it looks like, where it lives."
  • Watch for: themes that open material too fast, such as a direct trauma theme early in therapy. Prefer indirect and safe themes first. [synthesis]

4.7 Serial drawing (Allan)

  • Purpose: a short, structured course of drawing in which the symbolic expression of conflict and its resolution can be followed over a series of sessions. It can be run in schools and clinics. [source: Allan 1978, pp. 223–228]
  • Steps:
    1. Book 15–20 minute one-to-one sessions at the same time and place. Hold them weekly for moderate difficulties, or more often (Allan says daily) for very disturbed children.
    2. Tell the child the time is theirs and ask them to "draw-a-picture", any picture they want. [Allan 1978, pp. 223–224]
    3. While the child draws, listen, ask no questions, and tolerate long silences. Take no notes during the session.
    4. At the end, ask a few descriptive questions. Allan used: what is going on in the picture, what happens next, and whether it has a title. With preschoolers, ask whether the picture has a story, or comment on marks you noticed. [Allan 1978, pp. 224, 226]
    5. Write the child's name, the date and the title on the back of the drawing. Store the drawings in sequence.
    6. Phases 1 to 2: move from reflecting to more active empathic responses and interpretation within the metaphor (4.4) if the child is stuck.
    7. Termination: point out positive changes across the series, review progress with the child (laying the drawings out is an option, as synthesis), and ask how they would handle future upset. [Allan 1978, pp. 227–228]
  • Example language (illustrative): "What's happening in this one? … And what happens next? … Does it have a name?"
  • Watch for: Allan reports the following course:
    • Early drawings show chaos and destruction.
    • Middle drawings show separated feelings, helper figures, and positive and negative forces coexisting.
    • Late drawings show mastery, humour and self-symbols, and the helper drawn smaller.
    • Teacher feedback confirms progress.
    • Allan presented this as an exploratory study. [Allan 1978, pp. 224–228]

4.8 Journal drawing

  • Purpose: the child draws between sessions on their own schedule, which extends the symbolic work, suits older or more private children, and lets them choose what to bring. [source: Birch & Carmichael 2009, p. 6, citing Allan & Bertoia 1992]
  • Steps:
    1. Give the child a drawing journal and agree where it is kept, so it stays private at home. Agreeing the place is synthesis.
    2. The child draws one picture or a series, with written comments if they wish.
    3. In session, the child chooses what to show. Ask reflective questions about feelings, meaning, and what happened before and next.
    4. Group related pictures and invite a story with a beginning, middle and end.
    5. For abstract images, invite a feeling word for each colour, or offer your impression and check it against what the child meant.
  • Example language (illustrative): "These three look like they go together. Could they be one story? What happens first?"
  • Watch for: caregivers reading the journal. Agree privacy rules with the family first, consistent with your safeguarding duties. [synthesis]

4.9 Rosebush fantasy drawing (Oaklander; Allan & Crandall)

  • Purpose: a guided fantasy in which the child imagines being a rosebush, then draws it and speaks as it. It brings out feelings, needs and self-image at a safe projective distance. The technique is not Jungian in origin. It comes from Violet Oaklander's Gestalt work with children, Windows to Our Children (1978), where a girl is invited to imagine she is a rosebush (Oaklander 1978, p. 53, as cited by McMullin). John Allan and J. Crandall (1986) turned it into a scripted visualization with guided inquiry for school counselling. It entered the Jungian play therapy literature through Allan, and Birch & Carmichael (2009) present it within a Jungian approach. The Oaklander training institute calls it "a classic projective activity". [source: McMullin 1997, pp. 1–2, 18–21; Oaklander training page; Birch & Carmichael 2009, pp. 4–6]
  • When to use: with children who can tolerate a few minutes of guided imagery, to open up self-image, protection and care. [synthesis]
  • Steps (following Allan & Crandall's script as McMullin reports it, paraphrased):
    1. Begin with a brief relaxation: slow breathing and letting the body feel heavy. The script also uses an image for putting thoughts aside. The child closes their eyes or looks down.
    2. Invite the child to become a rosebush and find out what being one is like.
    3. While the image forms, ask slowly about its size, flowers, leaves, thorns and roots, what is around it, who looks after it, and the season. The child answers silently.
    4. Ask the child to open their eyes and draw the rosebush.
    5. For the inquiry, ask the child to describe the picture as if they were the rosebush, speaking as "I". Then ask about care, protection and what the bush needs. Oaklander's example is in the first person and present tense. [McMullin 1997, pp. 1, 19–21]
    6. Before reading anything into the image, check concrete facts such as the season. [Birch & Carmichael 2009, p. 5]
  • Example language: Allan & Crandall's inquiry opens with "tell me about your picture as if you were the rosebush" [McMullin 1997, p. 20]. Illustrative follow-ups: "Who takes care of you, rosebush? What do you need right now?"
  • Watch for: Birch & Carmichael offer readings such as fences as defences, roots as a need for stability, and dead plants as despair. These are clinical impressions, not validated signs. They also caution that a winter bush naturally has no leaves, and that a concrete child may simply draw the bush at home. Use the readings only as questions for the child. [Birch & Carmichael 2009, p. 5] Speaking as the rosebush keeps the distance of the image, so link it to the child's life only as in 4.4. Offer eyes-open imagery to children who find closing their eyes unsafe. [synthesis]

4.10 Free symbolic play with toys and puppets

  • Purpose: the core JAPT medium. Lilly and Heiko describe symbolic materials (toys) through which the child engages complexes at a safe distance. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, pp. 40–41; Green, ACA article, p. 75 (symbolic play)]
  • Steps:
    1. Offer a range of materials: family figures, animals including predators and prey, heroes and villains, fantasy figures, containers, building materials, puppets, and art supplies. The range is synthesis.
    2. Let the child choose.
    3. Witness and track (4.3).
    4. Enter the play when invited, taking the role the child assigns. Let the child direct it, and ask "what does my character do now?" when unsure.
    5. Interpret within the metaphor (4.4).
  • Example language (illustrative): "You want me to be the monster. What does the monster do? … Okay, roar… and now the knight is coming."
  • Watch for: repetitive play with no variation, which may mean the child is stuck (see 5.1). Also watch for rising arousal in post-trauma play (see 5.3). Signs of movement are new characters, new endings, and the child switching roles.

4.11 Symbol exploration and amplification

  • Purpose: deepen a symbol's meaning. Green's training course lists amplification among its core concepts, and one learning objective is to define "amplification" within the play therapy process. His own definition is not in the public course material, and his 2005 VISTAS article does not use the term [uncertain]. [source: Play Therapy Training Institute course description and objectives; Green 2005] In Jungian usage, amplification widens the meaning of an image by gathering parallels to it, moving from the person's own associations to parallels in myth, fairy tale, religion and other cultural traditions; it should stay emotionally alive rather than turn into an intellectual exercise. [source: Zaphiriou-Zarifi, IAAP short article "Amplification"]
  • Steps (synthesis):
    1. First collect the child's own associations (4.5 step 4).
    2. Privately consider what parallels exist in myth, story or the child's culture.
    3. With the child, amplify only through play or story, for example by offering a story or a related figure. Do not lecture.
    4. Note the amplification in your records as a hypothesis.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Lots of stories have a hero who has to go into a dark forest. I wonder what your knight will find there."
  • Watch for: imposing cultural or mythic meanings the child does not share. The child's meaning comes first (Green, p. 76).

4.12 Mandala work

  • Purpose: Green's training course names colouring mandalas as one of its techniques and says it teaches four steps for it. The steps are not published, and no published step-by-step version by Green was found [uncertain]. His Handbook has a chapter on adolescents with ADHD, cited from the contents page only, so it is not confirmed whether that chapter uses mandalas [uncertain]. His 2005 article does not mention mandalas. In Jungian theory the circle is a symbol of the Self and of ordering. That is the school's interpretation, not a fact. [source: Play Therapy Training Institute course description; JHU Press contents; Birch & Carmichael 2009 citing Jung 1934]
  • Steps (synthesis, not Green's four steps):
    1. Offer a blank circle or an outline to colour, with a choice of media.
    2. Invite free colouring or filling in, without a theme.
    3. Afterwards, invite a title and the feeling it has.
    4. Keep the mandalas as a series and review them over time.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Fill the circle any way you like. Then let's see what you'd call it."
  • Watch for: use as calming and focusing for impulsive or anxious young people. Do not read colours or patterns diagnostically. [synthesis]

4.13 Fairytales and story-making

  • Purpose: Green's training course names creating fairytales as a technique taught in four steps. The steps are not published [uncertain]. Allan's Inscapes of the Child's World (1988) includes serial story writing with a physically abused adolescent [Marrion 1990]. Allan and Judi Bertoia's Written Paths to Healing (1992) is a book on written methods in Jungian child counselling and education. Its procedures are not given here, as only its catalogue record is cited [uncertain]. Stories give archetypal distance from personal material. [source: Play Therapy Training Institute course description; Marrion 1990; library record for Allan & Bertoia 1992]
  • Steps (synthesis, not Green's four steps):
    1. Invite a story that begins "Once upon a time…", with a hero, a problem and a helper. Alternatively, continue a story across sessions, as in serial writing.
    2. Write or record it for the child if they wish.
    3. Ask what happens next, and who could help.
    4. Track how the hero's resources change across instalments.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Once upon a time there was… who? … And what was the trouble?"
  • Watch for: stories that are thinly veiled accounts of real harm. Stay in the story in the session, but handle the content under 4.22.

4.14 Dream work

  • Purpose: dreams are named as a carrier of symbols, and Green's training lists dream analysis. The sources cited give no child procedure. [source: Green, ACA article, p. 75; Green course objectives; procedure uncertain]
  • Steps (synthesis):
    1. Invite the child to draw, enact or sand-tray a dream instead of explaining it.
    2. Ask what happens next, or let the child give it a new ending.
    3. With nightmares, prioritise mastery (the child changes the dream) over interpretation.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Could you draw the dream? … If you could change one thing in it, what would it be?"
  • Watch for: recurrent trauma nightmares. Consider a trauma-focused referral (see 5.3).

4.15 Cathartic and abreactive play

  • Purpose: Lilly and Heiko describe allowing a full range of emotion, including abreaction and positive emotion. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]
  • Steps:
    1. Permit aggressive and sad play within the safety limits.
    2. Track intensity.
    3. When arousal climbs past the child's window, slow it down: lower your voice, reflect the feeling, suggest a pause, and use sensory grounding. [synthesis]
    4. Close with containment, such as putting the figures away or a calm ritual. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "That's a huge battle. Let's freeze it for a moment and take a breath, then you decide what happens."
  • Watch for: play that escalates into dissociation or re-enactment without change. Emotion should discharge and then settle, not repeat at the same pitch.

4.16 Integrative elements named by Lilly and Heiko

  • Purpose: Lilly and Heiko's JAPT also names a set of supporting procedures. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41; no steps given there, so the steps below are synthesis]
    • direct and indirect teaching
    • counterconditioning of fears
    • stress inoculation
    • metaphors of change
    • repeated engagement to build ego resilience
  • Steps (synthesis):
    1. Teach a coping skill directly, or model it through a character (indirect teaching).
    2. Pair a feared figure or theme with safety and fun in graded doses (counterconditioning).
    3. Rehearse a coming stressor in play, such as a court visit, a hospital stay or a new school (stress inoculation).
    4. Offer stories or images of transformation, such as a caterpillar or seed (metaphors of change).
    5. Return to the challenging theme across sessions, rather than once (repeated engagement).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's have the puppet go to the dentist first and see what helps him."
  • Watch for: these are more directive. Use them when regulation or a specific fear blocks progress, then return to child-led play.

4.17 Sandplay

  • Purpose: Green's Handbook gives sandplay a full chapter and an appendix on becoming a sandplay therapist. For the method, materials, hygiene and the training route, see 154 Sandplay (Kalff). It is not duplicated here. [source: JHU Press contents]

4.18 Other expressive arts and group drama

  • Purpose: the Handbook has an "Expressive Arts" chapter (ch. 5), cited by title only [uncertain]. Allan's book reports art work with abused and seriously ill children, fantasy work with a psychotic child, and creative drama with acting-out sixth and seventh graders, who channelled the urge to act out into making their own plays. [source: JHU Press; Marrion 1990 review of Allan 1988]
  • Steps (group drama, synthesis):
    1. Form a small group.
    2. Agree safety rules.
    3. Have the group invent a play.
    4. Assign roles, rehearse and perform.
    5. Close with a step out of role and a brief discussion.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your group is going to make up its own play. Who is in it, and what happens? All fighting is pretend and nobody gets touched." At the end: "Now let's shake off our characters and be ourselves again." [synthesis]
  • Watch for: acting-out that spills over. In enactment, keep physical contact staged and agreed (see 4.23).

4.19 Working with transference and countertransference

  • Purpose: Green includes analysis of transference to understand the child's complexes. Lilly and Heiko require the therapist to separate their own material from the child's. [source: Green, ACA article, p. 75; Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]
  • Steps:
    1. After each session, note what role the child cast you in (rescuer, persecutor, abandoner) and what you felt.
    2. Reflect on the role in the play, not by explaining it to the child. For example, become a reliable helper figure. [synthesis]
    3. Bring strong reactions to supervision or personal therapy.
  • Example language (illustrative): "In the game I keep being the one who forgets you. That must feel bad. I'm going to remember this time."
  • Watch for: a pull to rescue the child from parents, or to over-identify with the child. Allan notes that the helper's role fades in late drawings, which is a healthy sign. [Allan 1978, pp. 225–226]

4.20 Parent and carer consultation

  • Purpose: keep caregivers informed and engaged and track change in daily life. The sources cited say little here beyond intake (4.1) and using parent or teacher reports to confirm change, so the steps are synthesis. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41; Allan 1978, pp. 225, 228; Green, ACA article, p. 77]
  • Steps (synthesis):
    1. Hold separate review meetings with caregivers, roughly every four to six sessions.
    2. Share themes and progress, not the meaning of images.
    3. Ask about changes at home and school.
    4. Give guidance where useful: predictable routines, emotion coaching.
    5. Agree school contact with consent.
    6. Where caregiver difficulties sustain the problem, refer the caregiver or add family or dyadic work.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm seeing a lot of themes about being safe and protected. At home, what have you noticed about her bedtimes?"
  • Watch for: pressure to interpret pictures or to act as an evaluator in disputes. Decline, and explain the reasons.

4.21 Termination review

  • Purpose: consolidate mastery and the internalised sense of help. [source: Allan 1978, pp. 226–228]
  • Steps:
    1. Look at the signs together: mastery imagery, the child's waning need to come, and outside reports.
    2. Agree the number of remaining sessions. [synthesis]
    3. Review the series or the play with the child and name the changes.
    4. Ask how they would handle future upset.
    5. Say goodbye with a ritual, and agree what happens to the artwork. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Look how the storm pictures changed into these. What would you do now if a big storm came?"
  • Watch for: brief regression near the end, which is common. [synthesis]

4.22 Safeguarding, disclosure and records

  • Purpose: protect the child. This step always overrides the symbolic frame. [synthesis; duties vary by jurisdiction]
  • Steps (synthesis):
    1. Before starting, know your local reporting law. Mandated-reporter rules and thresholds differ by country, state and setting, as do your agency's procedures and named safeguarding lead.
    2. Explain the limits of confidentiality to the child and caregivers at the start, in words suited to the child's age.
    3. If the child discloses harm in words, or through play followed by words: stay calm, listen, and do not ask leading questions or interrogate through toys. Reassure the child that telling was right. Do not promise secrecy.
    4. Record the child's own words verbatim, with the date, the time and what preceded the disclosure. Separate observation from interpretation.
    5. Report as required, without delay.
    6. Never treat a drawing, sand scene or play theme alone as evidence of abuse. Do not send images to investigators as proof of abuse. Respond to legitimate record requests through proper channels, with context.
    7. Store the artwork as part of the clinical record. Allan wrote the name, date and title on the back. Agree its retention and return at ending.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Thank you for telling me. You did the right thing. I need to make sure you're safe, so I'll need to talk to someone whose job is to help keep children safe."
  • Watch for: your own urge to read abuse into symbols. Take that to supervision rather than acting on it.

4.23 Materials, room safety and touch

  • Purpose: physical safety and clear body boundaries. [synthesis]
  • Steps (synthesis):
    1. Use non-toxic, age-appropriate art materials. Keep small parts away from young children who mouth objects. Supervise scissors and sharp tools.
    2. Prefer premixed clay or dough to dry clay powder, and clean surfaces with a damp cloth to limit dust. Check for allergies (latex, foods in dough, glitter).
    3. Keep the room free of hazards: secure shelving, a soft area for physical play, no glass.
    4. Do not initiate touch. If the child asks for help, use the least contact needed and ask first.
    5. If the play calls for contact (for example a wrestle in role), redirect it to puppets or to staged, no-contact moves. A child can always say stop.
    6. Sexual or genital touch is never acceptable. If a child initiates sexualised touch, set a calm, firm limit, redirect the child, record it, and consider your safeguarding duties.
    7. Be sensitive to culture and trauma history around closeness. Keep the door glazed or ajar where your policy requires it.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Bodies stay safe in here. Let's have the puppets do the fighting."
  • Watch for: a child who keeps pressing for physical contact, or who freezes at closeness; record it, review it in supervision and consider safeguarding. Physical holding or restraint is never a therapeutic technique: use it only for imminent danger, under your service's written policy, and record it. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

5.1 Stuck in the middle phase (repetitive, destructive play)

  • Allan reports that severely disturbed children can get stuck in the middle phase, where aggressive impulses keep destroying anything that grows. Treat it as stuck when the same ambivalent theme repeats for about four or five sessions and you have a felt sense of it. At that point, become more active: reflect feelings and interpret within the metaphor (4.4), linking to the child's life and to the relationship once rapport allows. [source: Allan 1978, p. 227]
  • Further options [synthesis]:
    • Introduce a helper figure, or ask the play "what would help?"
    • Use a directive theme (4.6).
    • Add regulation work (4.16).
    • Check the context for an ongoing stressor, such as current abuse, conflict or bullying, that keeps the theme alive.

5.2 The child wants to stop, or refuses to draw or play

  • Allan warns that "I don't want to come" can be resistance, so weigh it against the images and outside reports. [source: Allan 1978, p. 224]
  • If the child refuses an activity [synthesis]:
    • Offer alternatives such as clay, puppets, story or sand (Allan's children also chose plasticine or storytelling). [Allan 1978, p. 224]
    • Accept silence. Allan tolerated long silences.
    • Offer parallel activity, where you draw beside the child without comment.
  • With adolescents who find toys childish: offer mandalas, journal drawing, collage or music, and discussion of the young person's own stories. [synthesis]
  • Respect the child's dissent. Assent is ongoing. If a child persistently does not want the therapy, review the plan with them and their caregivers rather than compelling attendance. [synthesis]

5.3 Overwhelm, flooding and post-traumatic play

  • Signs: rising arousal, frozen or dissociated play, the same traumatic re-enactment without variation, or distress that continues after sessions. [synthesis]
  • Responses [synthesis]:
    • Slow the play down, or pause it, and ground the child (4.15).
    • Strengthen the container (4.2).
    • Shorten intense segments and add a calming closing ritual.
    • Tell caregivers what to expect after sessions.
    • Lilly and Heiko's stress inoculation and counterconditioning give the work more structure (4.16).
    • If trauma symptoms persist or are severe, consider a referral, or adding a trauma-focused treatment with stronger evidence for that problem. Coordinate it with the play work.

5.4 Disclosure, suspected abuse, and over-reading symbols

  • Follow 4.22. Play or images alone never establish abuse. Do not question the child through toys to obtain an account. Report actual disclosures, and concerns that meet your jurisdiction's threshold, through local procedures. [synthesis]
  • If caregivers, schools or lawyers ask you to say what drawings "mean": explain that symbolic work is not a forensic method. Refer forensic questions to specialist evaluators. [synthesis]

5.5 Sexualised play or behaviour in session

  • Set a calm limit on any behaviour involving bodies, and redirect it to materials. Record what happened factually, without interpretation. Discuss it with your safeguarding lead. [synthesis]
  • Sexualised play is a reason for careful assessment, not by itself proof of abuse. [synthesis]

5.6 Physical aggression and limit testing

  • Restate the limit and offer a symbolic outlet ("the clay can be hit", illustrative). Restate it once more, and if needed end the session calmly, with a plan for next time. Consistent limits are part of temenos. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41 (temenos); responses synthesis]

5.7 Ruptures with the child

  • Signs: a mistimed interpretation, a missed session or a holiday break. The child withdraws, attacks the therapist figure in play, or rejects you. [synthesis]
  • Responses:
    • Name the rupture inside the metaphor or directly ("Maybe it felt like I didn't get it last time", illustrative).
    • Return to non-directive witnessing.
    • Allan asks for interpretations that the child accepts. Withdraw ones the child rejects. [source: Allan 1978, p. 227]

5.8 Non-attendance and caregiver non-engagement

  • Irregular attendance breaks the container. [source: Allan 1978, p. 223 on fixed time and place]
  • Responses [synthesis]:
    • Explore the barriers with caregivers (transport, beliefs about therapy, their own distress).
    • Consider school-based sessions, as Allan used.
    • Agree a minimum frequency.
    • Where caregiver problems drive the child's difficulties (Lilly & Heiko's multigenerational view), offer or refer for parallel caregiver work.

5.9 Caregiver or school pressure for quick results or explanations

  • Give realistic timeframes. Allan's serial drawing ran from a few sessions for mild problems to months for severe ones. Share observable progress markers and the themes, not interpretations. [source: Allan 1978, p. 224; rest synthesis]

5.10 Countertransference and therapist overreach

  • Signs: rescuing fantasies, anger at parents, or attachment to your own reading of a symbol. [source: Lilly & Heiko 2019, p. 41]
  • Responses: supervision, personal therapy, and recording interpretations as hypotheses. Green warns against preconceived meanings. [source: Green, ACA article, p. 76]

5.11 Cultural meaning of symbols

  • A symbol's meaning varies with the child's family, faith and culture. Green advises reading symbols within the macrosystem in which they occur. Ask the child and family about the meanings an image carries. Avoid applying archetypal readings across cultures. Religious and cultural images should be handled respectfully, not "interpreted". [source: Green, ACA article, p. 75; rest synthesis]

5.12 Neurodivergent children

  • Green's Handbook applies the approach to a child with autism and to adolescents with ADHD (chs. 9 and 7); their content is not reported here [uncertain].
  • Adaptations [synthesis]:
    • Use predictable structure and visual schedules.
    • Respect sensory preferences, offering media like sand, clay or water on the child's terms.
    • Expect fewer verbal associations, and let meaning stay in the play.
    • Read repetitive play in light of the child's neurotype before treating it as "stuck".

5.13 Working in schools

  • Allan designed serial drawing for teachers and day-care staff to deliver without outside referral. [source: Allan 1978, p. 223]
  • Today, have non-clinicians confine themselves to the non-interpretive parts (the frame, the invitation, the end-of-session questions). They should be supervised, trained in the school's safeguarding procedures, and should refer upward for interpretive or trauma work. [synthesis]
  • Agree with the school who sees the artwork. Keep it confidential, not on display. [synthesis]

Sources

Online sources:

Books cited (details from publisher or contents pages):

  • Allan, J. (1988). Inscapes of the Child's World: Jungian Counseling in Schools and Clinics. Spring Publications. Foreword by James Hillman. A revised 2nd edition appeared in 2020 (254 pp.). The publisher says the book won the Canadian Guidance and Counselling Association's 1987–88 best book award and covers spontaneous and directed drawing, guided imagery and active imagination. [Spring Publications page; McMullin 1997 reference list]
  • Allan, J. A. B., & Bertoia, J. (1992). Written Paths to Healing: Education and Jungian Child Counseling. Dallas, TX: Spring Publications. x + 260 pp., ISBN 0-88214-350-6. [library catalogue record] The Spring author page spells the title Written Paths of Healing, and Green (2005) spells the co-author "Bertoi". The catalogue record and Birch & Carmichael (2009) use "to" and "Bertoia".
  • Green, E. J. (2011). Jungian analytical play therapy. In C. E. Schaefer (Ed.), Foundations of Play Therapy (2nd ed., pp. 61–86). Wiley. Chapter number and pages from Wiley's contents page (ch. 5 starts p. 61, ch. 6 starts p. 87). [uncertain: editor name from bookseller listings]
  • Green, E. J. (2014). The Handbook of Jungian Play Therapy with Children and Adolescents. Johns Hopkins University Press. Foreword by John Allan. Chapters include Sandplay (3), Spontaneous Drawings (4), Expressive Arts (5), adolescents with ADHD (7) and a child with autism (9). [JHU Press contents]
  • Allan, J., & Crandall, J. (1986). The rosebush: A visualization strategy. Elementary School Guidance and Counseling, 21, 38–45. Cited via McMullin (1997).
  • Oaklander, V. (1978). Windows to Our Children: A Gestalt Therapy Approach to Children and Adolescents. Cited via McMullin (1997), who cites a later Gestalt Journal Press edition.
  • O'Connor & Braverman (2009) is cited only via Chibizhe (2016). Fordham (1973), Kalsched (1996) and Jung's works are cited only as the sources above cite them.
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