4 Tips for Sharing Play Themes With Parents

Sharing play themes with parents can be an important part of Child Centered Play Therapy.  Check out more HERE about four reasons to consider sharing play themes with parents!
 
So while this blog HERE answers the WHY we share play themes with parents and caregivers I wanted to give you some step by step guidance with the HOW! 

Most often we share themes with parents because they might be asking how a child is doing or progressing in therapy.  And although parents may be 100% on board with Child Centered Play Therapy (see more on how to talk about CCPT with parents in this absolutely FREE Mini Course HERE!) they still have curiosities about what actually goes on in the playroom! 
 
AND other times there are play themes that emerge that you as a therapist can get curious about and want to know more about what might be going on in the child’s life that might lead to these play sequences or themes! 
 
Either way figuring out how to translate what goes on in the playroom into something tangible a parent will understand can be complex! I wanted to share four tips for sharing play themes with parents! 
 
First things first, this is typically a conversation I have with parents alone without the child present. Sometimes children can feel embarrassed or ashamed about play themes AND it can sometimes shut play down. At the same time there are things you can do as a therapist I will detail below to have the utmost respect for play themes and keep a child’s play as confidential as possible. 
 
Speaking of confidentiality,  when disclosing play themes we are balancing along the lines of confidentiality when we share any information with parents.  One of the things I am very transparent about in my initial session with families is what stays confidential and what does not.  This also varies state by state, but in the states I am licensed in (except for very rare conditions) a parent has a right to a child’s private health information until the child turns 18.  
 
Now does this mean that I will be providing parents a transcript of sessions? Absolutely not. Does it mean that therapists are within their rights to share information they feel is medically necessary for the child’s treatment? Yes. 
 
What exactly is medically necessary can be up for debate BUT the bulk of parenting work I am doing with families does not involve disclosing things a child has disclosed in session.  Why? Well - the things that parents want to talk to me about, they already know! Parents are typically sharing waaay more information with me about their child than I am sharing back.
 
Now as we pivot back to play themes - this is definitely an exception. To keep a layer of confidentiality as a rule (which has some rare exceptions) I recommend to share themes and not content.
 
What does this exactly mean? If a child played out a sequence in the doll house of a mother being bossy, yelling, and trying to tell the child in what to do and the child was running away, being sassy, locking the mother in the house and making their own rules - I wouldn't exactly say that was what occurred.  
 
I might say something like “your child has been playing themes of difficulty with feeling powerful and in control at home”. 
 
Next, I always ask if these themes feel true for how the child is functioning at home.  With the (very made up) example from above I might ask “Does this show up for you and your child at home?”  Most of the time the parents will say uhhhh absolutely it does. This can help you launch into a meaningful conversation of how to support the parent with parenting skills and the child with meeting needs in the home environment. 
 
Lastly, I will discuss any play theme shifts and areas of growth.  Is there more empowerment? A regression? Higher levels of mastery? Less conflict and power struggles in play?  These are all areas to share with parents!
 
So there you have it - my BEST four tips for sharing play themes with parents!  These are my best strategies for keeping child confidentiality AND helping make meaning and movement from what’s happening inside of the session to outside! 
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Looking for more resources and support around play therapy themes?  Check out the training Dinosaurs In The Dollhouse: Interpreting Themes in Play Therapy  and learn the 7 frameworks and tools to interpret play themes with TONS of case examples! 

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