OXFORD, Miss. – Let’s face it: Even adults with extensive
verbal skills sometimes face complex emotional issues that
are hard to put into words.
Imagine what it’s like for a third-grader who’s still
learning what a noun is.
“Children simply don’t have the language to talk about
their problems,” said Marilyn Snow, associate professor of
leadership and counselor education at the University of
Mississippi. “But if we put them in a room full of toys,
they will play out their experiences, what they’re dealing
with, even if they can’t talk about it.”
It’s called play therapy, and it has been gaining momentum
in schools as a way to treat the mental and emotional
issues that some children bring with them to school. Snow
teaches two classes on play therapy for students pursuing
graduate and doctoral degrees in counseling education and
supervision. Ole Miss is among only a handful of
universities in the Southeast with such a program.
Once referred to play therapy, children attend 30- to
45-minute therapy sessions with only a play therapist
present. The toys they choose and how they play with them
offer a trained therapist insights into their world.
“In the play room, these children can act out the
situations they’re dealing with and begin to change those
situations in their minds,” said Kenisha Gordon, a doctoral
student from Amite, La., who coordinates play therapy at
Lafayette Middle School in Oxford.
“Being able to be there, to give them the space they need
to heal, it’s huge.”
As inspiring as it is, play therapy is often downright
intense for both client and therapist. Frequently, the
children are trying to sort out feelings of anger and
aggression themes that show up in their play. Snow
recalled what play therapists commonly call “a room wreck,”
in which a little boy angrily threw toys on the floor and
knocked over shelves during one session.
“When he finished, he let out a big sigh and said,
Freedom!’ I could just tell it was very liberating for
him,” Snow said. While a “room wreck” may look and sound
like a plain old tantrum to other adults including parents
and teachers Snow said that play therapists create a
comfortable space for children that is essential to helping
them work through their issues.
“If he did that elsewhere, it would be labeled as bad.’ He
doesn’t want to be called bad,’ so he wouldn’t do that in
public anymore,” she said. “But he’d still have that
aggression inside, bottled up. Here, he can express himself
and get it all out.”
But it takes patience, said Mary Thompson, a master’s
student from Oxford. Behavioral changes often take weeks,
even months, to manifest.
“Teachers, parents and society just want the child to be
fixed.’ But it doesn’t work like that,” Thompson said.
“This is a child who needs to heal. You have to be patient
with both the child and the process. It takes time.”
One of Snow’s courses, Introduction to Play Therapy, is
required for master’s students in counseling education, and
a course in Advanced Play Therapy is offered for master’s
and doctoral students. The students also can earn hundreds
of hours of actual experience in play therapy. Once they
complete their course work in the School of Education,
these students are well on their way to meeting the
requirements to become registered play therapists through
the Association for Play Therapy.
Even with all the training, there are still situations that
leave play therapists feeling helpless, such as when a
child must return home to a chaotic household or
irresponsible parents. “It’s very hard, being able to see
where a child seems to be headed and not being able to do
more about it,” Gordon said.
But Snow retains hope that even a relatively short time in
play therapy can help children cope as they grow older.
“It only takes one moment to impact someone’s life,” she
said. “If we can give a child a moment when she knows she’s
been heard, that someone cares and thinks she’s worthwhile,
that stays with her for the rest of her life. We do have an
impact.”
For more information on the UM Department of Leadership and
Counselor Education, go to
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/educ?school2/depts/leadership.html.