Implementing Play Therapy with Groups

Contemporary Issues in Practice

Clair Mellenthin, Jessica Stone, Robert Jason Grant

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000509892
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

Implementing Play Therapy with Groups is a new and innovative edited book bringing together experts from across the field of play therapy to explore how to facilitate group play therapy across challenging settings, diagnoses, and practice environments.

Applying theoretical and empirical information to address treatment challenges, each chapter focuses on a specific treatment issue and explores ways the reader can implement group work within their play therapy work. Chapters also provide contemporary evidence-based clinical information in providing group therapy with specific populations such as working with children who have been exposed to violence, trauma, adoption, foster care, those who are chronically medically fragile, and more.

This book will bring awareness to, and provide easily implemented play therapy knowledge and interventions for, child and family therapists who work in a range of settings including schools, hospitals, residential treatment centers, and community mental health settings.

Part I

Group Play Therapy Practice Models

DOI: 10.4324/9781003094531-2

1 Constructing Together

Therapeutic Applications of LEGO^® Serious Play^®

Mary Anne Peabody

DOI: 10.4324/9781003094531-3

LEGO^® bricks are among the world’s most iconic play objects. These small objects form a “system of play” designed on the principle that all bricks interlock and interrelate (Gauntlett, 2015). As such, newly manufactured bricks still connect with the original 1958 bricks and bricks from one kit are easily integrated with other kits (Gauntlett, 2015). This ingenious system of play contributes to why LEGO^® play is universally cherished by both children and adults (Robertson & Breen, 2013). This concept of universality across the life span also makes LEGO^® play an ideal choice for group work experiences that utilize object-mediated communication. Object-mediated communication uses tangible objects to invite shared dialogue (McGuire et al., 2015). When the objects used are LEGO^® bricks, the bricks become the focal point for inquiry and the representation of thoughts and feelings to promote deeper understanding.

One specific group approach that uses LEGO^® bricks as objects for communication is LEGO^® SERIOUS PLAY^® (LSP). LSP is a facilitated methodology that utilizes the creative power of LEGO^® bricks to generate a psychologically safe environment for problem solving through storytelling (Kristiansen & Rasmussen, 2014). The method involves a structured progression of activities based on (a) creating a model; (b) attributing metaphorical meaning to the model; and (c) sharing the meaning with the others in the group.

While originally developed to address complex problem-solving needs in the business sector (Kristiansen & Rasmussen, 2014) there is a growing interest by mental health professionals in adapting the traditional model of LSP to therapeutic group venues (Harn, 2018; Kestly, 2014; Peabody, 2015). Accordingly, when the facilitator is a licensed clinical mental health professional with specialized training in group work and the LSP methodology, a powerful multiplying effect can occur (Peabody & Noyes, 2017). To this end, it is not the bricks but rather the skilled facilitation of the process that produces change.

Capitalizing on the appeal of LEGO^® play across the life span, this chapter begins with an overview of several current therapeutic applications, followed by the theoretical underpinnings of the specific LSP methodology. Next, research on both the traditional LSP approach and adaptations into therapeutic applications are discussed with an invitation for continual exploration and research into the use of LSP into therapeutic venues. Then, a case example is presented that utilizes an adult group play therapy model to illustrate the integration of the therapeutic factors of group work (Yalom, 1995) with the LSP methodology (Kristiansen & Rasmussen, 2014) conceptualized through a resiliency model (Umhoefer et al., 2015).

Overview of LEGO^® Play in Therapeutic Contexts

Only recently has the use of LEGO^® bricks within therapeutic contexts appeared in literature (Harn, 2017; Legoff et al., 2014; Peabody, 2015). Play therapist, Theresa Kestly (2014) wrote about LSP in family therapy, Babs and Boniwell (2016) situated the traditional LSP model into a positive psychology framework, and this author adapted LSP principles within play therapy clinical supervision (Peabody, 2015). Psychologist, Pay-Ling Harn (2018) explored a LEGO^® facilitative method in clinical practice with a focus on social connection, emotion conversion, cognitive development, and action taking. Harn (2017) also used a strength-centered LSP workshop model with survivors of domestic violence and a group model with clients experiencing stress (Harn & Hsiao, 2018).

Specific to children, Thomsen (2018) explored the therapeutic use of LEGO^® bricks for boosting children’s emotional well-being in her book entitled, Therabuild and Tulluck (2020) published Brick-Based Counseling, a practitioner-friendly book to support children’s social-emotional learning. Currently, the LEGO^® Education company has several products designed by teachers and educational specialists that utilize story building across traditional academic subjects, and early intervention products that promote feeling recognition and expression.

Finally, the two approaches most frequently found in the literature are LEGO^®-based therapy and LSP. The two approaches are markedly different in terms of their targeted audience, learning objectives, facilitation processes, and overt activities. Next, we explore these disparate approaches in greater detail.

LEGO^®-based Therapy

LEGO^®-based therapy (LBT) is a well-researched directive group social skills intervention for school-age children with autism, social communication needs, dysregulation issues, and other neurodevelopmental disorders that is typically offered in education or after-school settings (Legoff et al., 2014; MacCormack et al., 2015). LBT capitalizes on LEGO^® bricks as a predictable, systematic, multilevel construction toy that provides intrinsically structured tasks that many children with autism are both attracted to and motivated by through active engagement (Baron-Cohen, 2008; Owens, et al., 2008).

In small groups, children are assigned designated roles, such as engineer, supplier, and builder. Within these roles, children strive to communicate and follow social rules to complete specific LEGO^® builds. Each activity requires verbal and non-verbal communication, the development of social communication skills such as sharing, following social rules, making eye contact, and joint problem-solving. Numerous studies and books have been conducted and published on this approach, so readers are encouraged to explore the literature surrounding this intervention in more depth (Legoff et al., 2014; MacCormack et al., 2015).

LEGO^® Serious Play^® (LSP)

LSP is a facilitated communication methodology that aims to help groups solve a problem, reach a common goal, foster insight and self-awareness (LEGO^® Serious Play, 2010). LSP seeks to create group experiences that unlock participant potential through breaking habitual thinking, unearthing new insights, and creating deep meaning making (Kristiansen & Rasmussen, 2014). Unlike some therapeutic group experiences, the LSP expectation is that all participants will “lean in and participate” so that everyone builds, everyone shares, and everyone speaks (James, 2015).

Therefore, the process of using brick objects to express ideas metaphorically is carefully paced and modeled by the facilitator to create a psychologically safe environment for inclusive group sharing. As group participants share their experiences and reflect on their feelings to make meaning, both emotional expression and group cohesion is accelerated (Peabody & Noyes, 2017). Consequentially, there is growing interest by mental health professionals to become certified in the LSP full methodology to deeply understand, successfully facilitate, and intentionally adapt this approach with therapeutic populations (Peabody, 2015; Sutton, 2012).

The professional training involved to learn the traditional LSP methodology includes several facilitated steps and seven applications that become increasingly more complex over time (Kristiansen & Rasmussen, 2014). Depending on the goals, objectives, purpose, and time constraints, an LSP group may progress through all seven application stages, or only focus on the first few applications. The bricks used within LSP are specialized LEGO^® kits that supply a mix of metaphoric pieces and general LEGO^® bricks to invite symbolic 3-dimensional modeling that aids in story creation.

Theories Supporting LSP Group Work

Knitted together from psychology, behavioral sciences, education, and neuroscience, the theoretical underpinnings supporting LSP can be considered an amalgamation of interdisciplinary fields. Together these junctures present a coherent understanding of how people learn and how group dynamics influence this learning. The melding of psychological and behavioral science principles with educational practices is not new, and this next section highlights prominent areas of convergence among the LSP theories most applicable to therapeutic play therapy groups.

Constructivism

LSP is grounded in the theory of constructivism, developed by Jean Piaget (1964) who considered humans to be active theory builders rather than passive absorbers of information with the ability to construct, rearrange, and deconstruct knowledge-based experiences. In constructivist theory, the process of meaning-making and constructing knowledge is understood to have both individual and social components, so that individuals not only learn from their own thinking processes, but also by accessing and intersecting with the learning of others (McAuliffe & Eriksen, 2011).

Constructionism

A colleague of Piaget’s (1964), Seymour Papert (1999) extended the constructivism theory to what he called constructionism theory. Papert’s theory asserted learning was further deepened when people engaged in constructing something external to themselves (Kristiansen & Rasmussen, 2014; Papert & Harel, 1991). Papert (1999) believed that the hand-mind process of “thinking through your fingers,” engaged various modes of thought, creative energies, and imagination. According to Papert & Harel (1991) this hand-mind experience allowed abstract ideas to become visual and tangible, resulting in deeper understanding and discoveries of thought that otherwise might not be accessible.

Neuroscience Principles

The contributions of neuroscientific principles to mental health treatment have provided therapists with a knowledge base and vocabulary helpful when explaining play therapy to adults. Due to a societal association of play being linked to childhood or considered something frivolous, engaging adults in play-based interventions takes intentional planning, pacing, and language (Badenoch & Kestly, 2015; Walsh, 2019). Some adults may give more credibility to a scientifically grounded explanation of why and how play interventions are helpful. Kestly (2014) encourages play therapists to understand the neurobiology of a storytelling brain at play when explaining why play, and specifically LSP, is the intervention of choice to meet treatment goals.

Research Supporting LSP

There is a burgeoning research base covering traditional LSP methodology with studies exploring the impact on strategic innovation and thinking (Statler et al., 2011), leadership development (Dykes, 2018; Holliday et al., 2007; Peabody & Turesky, 2018) and within higher education coursework (Dann, 2018; Nerantzi & James, 2019). Research studies within higher education have examined: accelerated group cohesion (Peabody & Noyes, 2017), group members sense of identity (Gauntlett, 2007), creative confidence (Dykes, 2018) and adult student learning engagement (Chung, 2019). In contrast, there is a paucity of studies exploring LSP therapeutically except for those previously mentioned by Harn and colleagues (Harn, 2017; Harn & Hsiao, 2018), thereby illuminating a gap in the literature and offering new frontiers for exploration.

Adult Group Work

Prolific play therapy author Charles Schaefer (2003) and other mental health professionals have endorsed the va...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Foreword
• Introduction and Foundation of Group Play Therapy
• PART I: Group Play Therapy Practice Models
• PART II: Clinical Settings
• PART III: Special Populations
• Index