RESPONSE 1 Respond to at least 2 colleagues by expanding on evidence in support of play therapy. Colleague 1: Christine There are many ways play therapy can benefit children and in this case 6 year old Claudia. As children experience trauma service providers may also have difficulty with young children and self disclosure. Here is the list that I came up with after reviewing this discussion resources in relation to how this approach can benefit: 1) Creating a safe space to explore with safety can hold children accountable for responsible behaviors while developing successful insight to harness positive strategies to cope.  2) Children can also benefit as they learn new solutions toward dealing with issues while learning skills to express new and old emotion.  3) There can be a gained awareness to self; understanding thoughts and emotions.  4) Children can learn new social skills as they work with their provider and how to relate to self through creativity. Also, gaining communication skills as they use various forms of play therapy.  5) Children may also develop an awareness toward new and old abilities using a strength-based approach toward therapy.  Another form of play therapy that I am fond of while working with children is storytelling. It isn't for all children specifically concentrating on those that feel comfortable opening up and speaking to others. Storytelling has been beneficial to me while working with children in the past as it has revealed fear and anxieties. Utilizing different platforms of storytelling, self disclosure can build various survival strategies in children as they explore different situations through actions, movements, and changes. (Chiesa, 2012, pp 5) Overall I feel strongly play therapy in all forms whether it be art therapy, role playing, non-directive/directive play, can promote healing, through self expression of feelings. It can also encourage children to build creative ways to deal with current and future trauma, and allow the development of healthy decision-making.  Chiesa, C, (2012). Scripts in the sand; Sandplay in transactional analysis psychotherapy with children. Transactional Analysis Journal. pp. 5 Retrieved from Walden Library databases.  Colleague 2: Tiffany Play therapy can be beneficial because Claudia is a young child who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw a mugging which caused her to be fearful, and develop anxiety. Play therapy helps the child to relax and the child is interested in playing with the toys in the sand. The sand can help the child relax and the toys can help the child create her own world. Usually, children will repeat behaviors or experiences during play. This can help the social worker assess the magnitude of trauma or abuse the child has experienced. This also makes it easier for the child to talk about their trauma or experiences. Play therapy helps children address and resolve their own problems. Play therapy helps to communica ...

1. RESPONSE 1
Respond
to at least 2 colleagues by expanding on evidence in support of
play therapy.
Colleague 1: Christine
There are many ways play therapy can benefit children and in
this case 6 year old Claudia. As children experience trauma
service providers may also have difficulty with young children
and self disclosure. Here is the list that I came up with after
reviewing this discussion resources in relation to how this
approach can benefit:
1) Creating a safe space to explore with safety can hold children
accountable for responsible behaviors while developing
successful insight to harness positive strategies to cope.
2) Children can also benefit as they learn new solutions toward
dealing with issues while learning skills to express new and old
emotion.
3) There can be a gained awareness to self; understanding
thoughts and emotions.
4) Children can learn new social skills as they work with their
provider and how to relate to self through creativity. Also,
gaining communication skills as they use various forms of play
therapy.

2. 5) Children may also develop an awareness toward new and old
abilities using a strength-based approach toward therapy.
Another form of play therapy that I am fond of while working
with children is storytelling. It isn't for all children specifically
concentrating on those that feel comfortable opening up and
speaking to others. Storytelling has been beneficial to me while
working with children in the past as it has revealed fear and
anxieties. Utilizing different platforms of storytelling, self
disclosure can build various survival strategies in children as
they explore different situations through actions, movements,
and changes. (Chiesa, 2012, pp 5)
Overall I feel strongly play therapy in all forms whether it be
art therapy, role playing, non-directive/directive play, can
promote healing, through self expression of feelings. It can also
encourage children to build creative ways to deal with current
and future trauma, and allow the development of healthy
decision-making.
Chiesa, C, (2012). Scripts in the sand;
Sandplay in transactional analysis psychotherapy with children.
Transactional Analysis Journal.
pp. 5
Retrieved from Walden Library databases.
Colleague 2: Tiffany
Play therapy can be beneficial because Claudia is a young child
who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and
saw a mugging which caused her to be fearful, and develop
anxiety. Play therapy helps the child to relax and the child is
interested in playing with the toys in the sand. The sand can
help the child relax and the toys can help the child create her
own world. Usually, children will repeat behaviors or

3. experiences during play. This can help the social worker assess
the magnitude of trauma or abuse the child has experienced.
This also makes it easier for the child to talk about their trauma
or experiences. Play therapy helps children address and resolve
their own problems. Play therapy helps to communicate with
others, express their feelings, modify behaviors, develop skills
to help them solve problems, and they can also learn other ways
of relating to others.
If I worked with Claudia I would use play therapy with the use
of a little town or city with people in it. This would help
Claudia tell her story. I would ask Claudia to create her family
and support out of a few of the characters, I would then ask
Claudia to choose characters that she felt were bad. I would
then work with her on the bad characters by using strengths of
her supports to build a safe environment and reassure Claudia
her environment is safe by adding the police and security guards
to the characters to reassure her she is protected and safe.
References
Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014b).
Social work case studies: Concentration year. Baltimore, MD:
Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-
reader]. Working with Children and Adolescents: The Case of
Claudia (pp. 15–17)
Taylor, E. R. (2009). Sandtray and solution-focused therapy.
International Journal of Play Therapy, 18(1), 56–68.
RESPONSE 2

4. Respond
to at least two colleagues who identified strategies different
from your own by proposing alternative strategies
.
Colleague 1: Christine
Countertransference occurs as a reactionary behavior by the
service provider as they direct emotion or feeling onto the
client. This can looks like and mean various things for the
provider while meeting with a client. I've seen this amongst co-
workers in the fashion of meeting with clients that are either the
offender, or the abuser in a scenario, which would mostly be
indirect feelings or emotions in regard to having worked with
clients that have a background of being the abuser or someone
that has a criminal sexual charge. I've seen providers project
feelings onto these individuals with a less empathetic approach
than say if they were working with the actual victim.
Handling countertransference in a therapeutic setting can be
difficult for the provider and the client. However, approaches
can be taken to either avoid or dismantle these unconscious
feelings. First, I think recognizes these feelings is crucial
toward any situation where this may arise. Moving this
unconscious emotion to the conscious state of awareness will be
key in creating healthy boundaries between the provider and the
client. Meanwhile, this can provide the effective mode of
therapy both parties seek. By becoming aware of such emotion,
the service provider will have more opportunities to discover
those underlying motives or needs in the client through
assessment. Understanding and becoming aware of those
triggers from clients is important as well. When we are aware of
our triggers we can become better equipped toward that
empathy we seek as providers and dismantle any personal
conviction we may have. This can lead to a well-rounded

5. understanding of cultural competence. As service providers we
can also keep unwarranted self disclosure out of our work.
Excessive disclosure may allow for those unwarranted emotions
from the provider onto the client. Keeping within our
professional boundaries is key here. Staying away from
becoming over-involved, feelings of blame onto other's as the
provider and really pushing the client to change due to personal
convictions are all motives to discover ways to change the
professional relationship.
Transference can be exhibited by the client toward the service
provider as a way of projecting fears, or emotions onto the
provider. These emotions can be generated from past
experiences or trauma and isn't always viewed as negative or
positive in the helping relationship. There can be many ways
this will be seen in a helping relationship with ideas from the
client of association toward the provider, negative feelings, or
even romantic feelings toward the provider. I saw this a few
times in my field work while working with younger clients. I
once had a male client view me as his mother after meeting with
him over time. Here, the first thing I did was seek supervision
as this was all new to me. Seeking supervision assisted me
toward understanding new approaches and building boundaries
between me and said client. There was also a decrease in our
meetings with each other, for which allowed my client to gain
more independence in self and less dependence on me. I also
found after seeking supervision that opening the table up more
for discussion in regard to feelings and boundaries, the client
and I were able to gain insight on the differences of emotion
and feelings. This allowed for our working relationship to grow
and it also assisted him in other unhealthy situations in his life.
The insight gained here allowed him to grow a new perspective
on self-sustainability and grow more independent toward
reaching his goals.

6. Colleague 2: Tiffany
Why transference and countertransference are so common when
working with children. Then, identify some strategies you might
use to address both transference and countertransference in your
work with children.
Informed practice based on the psychodynamic concepts such as
transference and counter-transference can be very helpful as
they provide invaluable insights into the world of children as
well as into our own inner world as social workers.
Author Ariola Vishnja Zjarri states that using psychodynamic
concepts such as transference and counter-transference as well
as an understanding of projection can aid social workers in our
work with young people, but while it is helpful it also presents
us with difficulties. It can be helpful for the children if we, the
social workers, become aware of the transference feelings which
flow to and from between the child and the worker which results
in us providing more informed and sensitive support to the
child. At the same time, it can be difficult because engaging
with young people in this way involves a lot of searching and
sometimes painful introspection and self-containment for the
worker. It demands that we receive skilled supervision and
management, and requires insightful supervision and skilled
management to help us deal with our feelings as well as with
those of the child. Most importantly it helps us understand that
we don’t always have to stomp a foot down every time we sense
there is a possibility of losing control of the child. A knowledge
and awareness of transference in our work can assure us that we
can emotionally contain situations without recourse to drastic
action because we understand that by not acting on transferred
feelings, but rather by acknowledging them we can help a child
explore their behavior and feelings with us by comparing their
feelings from the past with their current reality.

7. Reference
Zjarri, Ariola Vishnja. Retrieved January 17, 2018, from
http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/the-journal/transference-
and-counter-transference-their-therapeutic-value-in-residential-
work-with-young-people/
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