Compile your very own portable play therapy kit. The challenge I have for you is to NOT buy anything. In prior semesters, myself and other professors have encouraged students to develop their own portable play therapy kit with items they purchase. However, I have heard many creative stories of fellow play therapists in the wake of COVID improvision. For instance, a fellow provider posted the following (Excuse the lack of punctuation. This was a social media post): ″ I had a pretty out-of-control grieving child today tell me to F off and was reaching for the computer to turn me off when I noticed a pen in the background … I said to her hold on I have a tiktok challenge for you … she stopped and started to pay attention a little … I told her she didn′t have to talk to me but it would be really fun for her to draw faces on her fingertips and give a pretend tiktok audience a puppet show of any topic. Baam!! This kid took right to it and non-directively gave me the best trauma narrative I have ever heard her give. She was safe in her bedroom and had access to all the things that make her feel better.″ ~Dena Jenkins posted in the Online Therapist Group (permission granted by author). For this assignment, You are to come up with 15-20 items that can be used in play. These will be items that you find around your house or yard. I will provide an example idea below. Maybe you like to be creative with sticks and leaves. Then take a picture or video of your items and upload them into this dropbox. I am going to give you two weeks for this project, since it takes creativity. I look forward to seeing your outcomes. Example: One technique to teach clients the effects of worries is to use a backpack and rocks. I have a selection of rocks in various sizes. Prior to this activity, I have the client share a list of worries with me. We then rate them on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the lowest amount possible and 10 being the greatest amount possible. I then have the client select a rock to represent the worry with the greatest rate. Each rock selected thereafter would be a little smaller, based upon the rating. Once the client has a rock to represent each worry, the client puts on the empty backpack to experience how light the empty backpack feels. You then place each rock/worry into the backpack, one at a time, starting with the lightest. With each rock, you help the child recognize the difference in the weight of the backpack. Once all the rocks/worries are all placed into the backpack, the child wears it around and feels the entire weight of their worries. You may play a game or dance or move around the room while the client wears the backpack. Then, you discuss how it would feel to carry these worries around all the time. The desired outcome is to help the child recognize that when they worry it weighs them down. Then, you can help the child feel how much lighter the backpack is when you remove the worries from the backpack and leave them behind. (Once the rocks are removed from the backpack I invite the client to paint the rocks/worries and leave them in my office to dry.
