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Reflection of Best Approach
Reflection of Best Approach
There are some of the approaches to play therapy commonly used by practitioner
nowadays. They are Adlerian play therapy, child-centered play therapy, cognitive–behavioral
play therapy, ecosystemic play therapy, Gestalt play therapy, Jungian analytical play therapy,
In this reflection, I would like to reflect the best approaches that might be best fit as my
role as a homeroom teacher. This first approach that would I choose is Adlerian play therapy. I
chose this approach because I have observed the children in my class are unique, each child has
their own uniqueness. Children as a human being are socially embedded that subjective and
creative being whose behavior are purposeful and goal directed. Kotman (2011) explains that
“Teaching children to value connection with other people and learn the skills for building
relationships and fostering social interest is an integral part of the process of Adlerian play
therapy” (p. 42). It is aimed the children to see how they desire to connect with others and to
gain significant in their life. How someone connects with others, how someone gains significant
in life, how someone feels like, are sometime mistaken because of the child’s childhood
experiences. It is interesting how the Adlerian therapy have detailed four phases that I believe it
could help us (as therapist / teacher) to know who the child is and how we can intervene with the
The thing that appealed most is “Adlerians believe that all people are socially embedded
and cannot be understood without comprehending their social system (which starts with the
family), whenever possible, they work conjointly with children and their parents.” (Kottman,
2011, p.46). I believe that Adlerian therapy approach is best fit my role as homeroom teacher to
observe my students’ behavior. I am not only observing in the class through play therapy,
storytelling and their creativity (drawing). I do communicate with the parents to do some
consultation to build a relationship with the parents to add more information into the parents and
The second approach I would choose that I can integrated with Adlerian approach is the
child-centered play therapy. I believe this would work best to observe my students which are
young learners. And this is a good approach where I can have faith to my students are able to
work on whatever they need to resolved. I just need to play with my student, and observe their
“Filial therapy is a strategy for teaching parents the skills involved in child-centered play
therapy. These skills were defined by VanFleet (1994, 2000a, 2009a) as (a) structuring skills, (b)
empathic listening skills, (c) child-centered imaginary play skills, and (d) limit-setting skills.”
(Kottman, 2011, p. 51). This is the approach to working with parents to build parenting skills,
family relationships and interactional patterns with their children. What really interests me the
most is this approach led children to know sad things happened and learn how to control their
emotions. It affects in many ways, self-esteem, moods, grades and social behavior. Furthermore,
it works really well for children, because they love to play and became self-centered than others.