EPT10-Session-5 – Symbolic Meanings of Roles, – Center for Experiential Play Therapy

Welcome to your EPT10-Session-5 - Symbolic Meanings of Roles,

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Which is NOT true about the meaning of roles for children in EPT:

Roles represent memory and emotionality experienced by the child.

Each role has one expressed meaning and it can only change from session to session.

Children are able to express more profound meanings through roles than through verbal descriptions.

By responding to the meaning of the toy, the therapist enters the child’s world at a more sensitive and immediate level.

In EPT we always call the self-object animal by the same gender as the child.

True

False

Which is NOT a correct meaning of the use of animal symbols in EPT:

Animals are people and become their metaphorical dynamics in the play therapy process.

Animals are the most valuable form of expression when domestic animals are used.

Animals can become self-objects to the child and become the child’s form of emotional expressions.

Animals create power structures in the play that can represent threatening or empowering dynamics.

Which indicates the most positive and secure environments that children would most likely create during the Therapeutic Growth Stage?

Basement, island, lighthouse, and space ship.

Beach, farm, picnic, and garden.

Desert, ocean, volcano, and underwater.

Wind, walls, cliff, and cemetery.

Environments that would indicate issues of change or transition in the child, would most likely be:

River, tunnel, bridge, and map.

Sailing, zoo, swamp, and church.

Bedroom, court, fort, and jail.

Jungle, lighthouse, wedding, and earthquake.

The environments that would indicate a need for a defensive stand on the part of the child would be:

Lake, hospital, zoo, and bathrooms.

Haunted house, jail, being invisible, or tornado.

Swamp, circus, city, and car race.

Restaurant, store, bank, and crib.

Roles such as painter, builder, zoo keeper, and farmer are most likely to be played in which stage of EPT:

The Dependency Stage.

During the drama of the trauma.

The Therapeutic Growth Stage.

The Exploratory Stage.

The following roles played by children that would most likely represent internal issues around identity struggles are:

Clown, super hero, bully, and beggar.

Teacher, judge, nurse, and police.

Hunter, firefighter, drug dealer, and cook.

Baby sitter, angel, spy, and shopper.

When a child plays dead in the drama of their play therapy, they are saying they are suicidal.

True

False

A girl playing a prom queen has significantly more social empowerment than a girl playing a cheerleader.

True

False

Roles that usually symbolize perpetrators are:

Investigators, guards, pilots, and knights.

Astronauts, beauticians, robots, and preachers.

Burglars, pirates, vampires, and ghosts.

Aliens, wizards, clowns, and brides.

The group of animals that most commonly symbolize perpetrators are:

Frogs, raven, skunks, and rats.

Vulture, worm, beaver, and dolphin.

Rhinoceros, porcupine, leech, and fox.

Alligator, shark, wolf, and snake.

When a child takes a porcupine or piranha and puts it toward the therapist’s body, it most likely represents feelings of violation and/or emotional intrusion.

True

False

Environmental symbolic expressions created by children are more meaningful than symbolic expressions expressed of animals.

True

False

Environments represent the direct and pervasive mood associated with the played events and issues.

True

False

Which environment would most likely indicate that the child had a sudden immobility response during a trauma event?

Hospital room.

Going through a tunnel.

Climbing a mountain.

Trapped in an avalanche.

Poisonous species are the best way for children to express increases in internal empowerment.

True

False

When a young girl plays a king, it means she has an underlying gender identity disorder.

True

False

In EPT, all toys, roles, environments, and animals convey emotional energy that the child has contained in their body and in their emotions.

True

False

In EPT, the best way to enter a child’s world is:

Tell the child what toys to play with.

Give children candy while they play.

Enter the child’s play when invited to play.

Remind the child of all the limits in the playroom each session.