What is Posttraumatic Play?

What is posttraumatic play?

Posttraumatic play is a unique type of play with specific characteristics. This play isn’t enjoyable play. This play is a play that the child uses to work things out with. What the child is playing is literal. So, what they are creating is not what they want. They're creating what has happened to them. It’s important to note that this type of play is very repetitive, the child may play the same thing over and over and over. In addition, it's highly structured and the child becomes very self-absorbed. Therefore, interrupting the child’s play literally interrupts their process. 

This also applies to drawing. And so again, let the child be. If the child's drawing, refrain from asking them questions while they're drawing. One, it's difficult to do two things at once. But two, it's interrupting their process. They're not just drawing a picture of themselves, they're drawing a picture of what represents themselves. We're trying to help children use the ego defense mechanism of displacement, and externalization when they use art in play, so it's drawing or painting the pain outside of themselves. 

This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Childhood Trauma: Impact and Intervention, presented by Kim Anderson, PhD, MSSW, LCSW.