Table Of ContentIntegrating Play
Techniques in
Comprehensive School
Counseling Programs
Integrating Play
Techniques in
Comprehensive School
Counseling Programs
by
Jennifer R. Curry
Louisiana State University
and
Laura J. Fazio-Griffith
Southeastern Louisiana University
Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Charlotte, North Carolina (cid:129) www.infoagepub.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data for this book can be found on the Library of Congress website http://
www.loc.gov/index.html
ISBNs: Paperback: 978-1-62396-304-0
ISBNs: Hardcover: 978-1-62396-305-7
ISBNs: eBook: 978-1-62396-306-4
Copyright © 2013 IAP–Information Age Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or by
photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise without written permission from
the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Introduction to Edited Book
Jennifer R. Curry and Laura J. Fazio-Griffith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
1. Incorporating Play Interventions With Individual and
Small Group Counseling in Schools
Jacqueline M. Swank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Using Play Techniques to Address Student Grief and Loss
Peggy L. Ceballos and June M. Williams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3. Using Play Techniques for Family Substance Abuse
Concerns
Jonathan H. Ohrt, Jenifer N. Ware, and Dodie Limberg . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4. Finding their Voice: Empowering Students With
Selective Mutism
Angela I. Sheely-Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5. Adlerian Play Therapy in a School Setting for
Children Whose Caregivers Are Mentally Ill
Barbara B. Hebert. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6. Using Play Therapy Techniques in Counseling Children
With Deployed Parents
Jennifer R. Curry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
7. Integrating Play Techniques With Students Experiencing
Academic Challenges
Jonathan H. Ohrt, Dodie Limberg, and Jenifer N. Ware . . . . . . . . . . . 125
v
vi CONTENTS
8. Playing in Peril: Integrating Play Therapy With Responsive
Services Following a Natural Disaster
Jennifer N. Baggerly and Eric J. Green. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9. Children With an Incarcerated Parent:
Child-Centered Play Therapy
M. Ann Shillingford, S. Trice-Black, and M. Whitfield-Williams . . . . . 167
10. Demonstrating School Counselor Effectiveness in
Counseling Using Play Therapy Techniques
Jolie Ziomek-Daigle and Kelly Cowart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
11. Integrating Playful Activities and Games Within School
Counseling Small Groups
Jacqueline M. Swank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
12. Choice Reality Play Therapy for Children Involved in
Bullying
Kimberly L. Mason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
13. Anger Management and Adlerian Play Therapy
M. Ann Shillingford and S. Kent Butler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
14. Play Therapy: Interventions for Children With
Asperger’s Syndrome
Ashley Churbock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
15. Reactive Attachment Disorder: Play Therapy Interventions
for School Settings
Julie A. Ritchie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
16. School-Based Play Therapy for Students With
Separation Anxiety
Vanessa Bowles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
17. Social Skills Development and School Based Play
Techniques: Engaging and Empowering Students
Laura J. Fazio-Griffith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
18. Helping Homeless Children in Schools:
Play Therapy Interventions
Erin M. Dugan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
About the Authors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
INTRODUCTION TO
EDITED BOOK
J. R. CURRYJe AnNniDfe Lr. RJ.. FCAuZrIrOy- aGnRdIF LFaIuTrHa J. Fazio-Griffith
School counselors play a unique role in the mental health of students,
families, community stakeholders, and educational systems through deliv-
ery of a prevention based, developmental, comprehensive school counsel-
ing program. Today’s school counseling programs are based on the
American School Counselor Association’s National Model (ASCA, 2012).
This model allows school counselors to design, implement and manage
school counseling programs that include a guidance curriculum to pro-
mote student competence in the areas of personal/social, career, and aca-
demic development. However, there are times when students face
adjustment difficulties or personal crises and need extra support from
their school counselor. Extra support includes referrals to outside agen-
cies (e.g., reporting child abuse), coordination of services with other pro-
fessionals (i.e., social workers or case managers), and responsive services.
Responsive services are a direct service provided by school counselors and
include the provision of individual and small group counseling for stu-
dents demonstrating need.
Because school counselors are responsible for an entire program, it is
not possible for them to deliver long-term, therapeutic interventions or to
address deep, psychological issues through intense treatment modalities
(ASCA, 2012). Specifically, limited responsive services such as short term,
brief counseling that targets student adjustment and healthy coping are
Integrating Play Techniques in Comprehensive School Counseling Programs, pp. vii–ix
Copyright © 2013 by Information Age Publishing
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. vii
viii J. R. CURRY and L. J. FAZIO-GRIFFITH
within the purview of the school counselor’s work. In this book, we invited
authors to review specific issues that cause student adjustment difficulties
and we asked the authors to provide play therapy interventions that are
brief in both duration and length to accommodate counseling in the
school environment. Examples of student concerns addressed in this book
include bullying, parent incarceration, parent military deployment, grief
and loss, natural disasters, separation anxiety, family substance abuse, and
other issues that impact students’ daily functioning at school.
Play therapists, such as Virginia Axline, Garry Landreth, Charles Scha-
fer, Kevin O’Connor, Eliana Gill, Terry Kottman and many others are cred-
ited with recognizing the importance of play when counseling children. The
foundation of play therapy approaches is rooted in the belief that children
naturally communicate and resolve problems through play; as such, play is
a natural medium for counseling with children. While we are grateful for the
original works of seminal play therapy authors and researchers, in this
edited book we have necessarily tailored their work to the school setting.
Because schools are a unique environment, counseling practices must be
adapted to the practical considerations of school settings and the school
day. In this book, the authors explore concerns that children may com-
monly express in the school environment and provide school counselors
with guidelines for implementing play techniques and interventions based
on best practice interventions in the school environment.
The chapters of this book are designed with several specific purposes
in mind. To begin with, each chapter highlights a specific concern that
may compromise student adjustment and, thereby, may create a barrier to
student learning. Second, each chapter provides a miniature literature
review which serves as a description of the problem or concern (e.g., care-
giver substance abuse), how this issue may affect children, and the scope
and prevalence of the problem. It is our hope that the information in the
literature review may be used by school counselors to inform stakeholders
(parents, teachers, administrators) about various problems children expe-
rience and the impact of these problems on children’s mental health and
school functioning. For example, school counselors with students in their
schools who have parents being deployed for military combat will find
information in the military deployment chapter about the phases of mili-
tary deployment, common adjustment problems faced by children when
parents are deployed, normal adjustment periods, and signs that children
are having difficulty adjusting. This information may be useful for a par-
ent workshop or faculty in-service presentation. Third, each chapter high-
lights an evidenced based play therapy practice for addressing the
student concern or problem presented in the chapter and gives a case
study example of how to conduct counseling sessions utilizing play ther-
apy interventions within a school environment.
Introduction to Edited Book ix
As previously mentioned, the case studies and play practices demon-
strated in this book are based on play therapy theory. This book under-
scores traditional practices and techniques of various play therapy
theories (i.e., Adlerian, child centered, reality based, cognitive behavioral,
solution focused brief play therapy) and pulls from the work of outstand-
ing play therapy researchers, authors and practitioners (i.e., Garry Lan-
dreth, Sue Bratton, Eliana Gil, Athena Drewes, Virginia Axline, Terry
Kottman). Our goal is not to denounce classical play therapy approaches,
rather, the evidenced-based practices contained in this book orient play
therapy to the contemporary school setting within the context of a com-
prehensive, school counseling program as short-term, brief responsive
services.
It is our hope that this book will become a useful guide for school
counselors who may have limited play therapy training with a high need
for knowledge of how to help children in the most effective, developmen-
tally appropriate ways possible. This book is dedicated to the hard work
and devotion of school counselors. More importantly, this book is also
dedicated to children who need encouragement, love, and support from
competent, school counseling professionals.
