Personzentrierte Spieltherapie nach sexuellem Missbrauch: Eine Kasuistik zur Verdeutlichung zentraler Spiel- und Symbolisierungsprozesse

Abstract

Person-centred play therapy with sexually abused children — a casuistry to show central processes of play and symbolization. Playing can help children to generate solutions for problems and to develop and modify their concepts ( = schemes) of the world, of their selfs and of their relations to other people. In the client-centered play therapy this effect is supported among other things by building up a friendly relation to the child, by his/her full acceptance and the respectful relection of his/her feelings and cognitions. The following paper outlines the therapeutic process with a four-year-old girl who was sexually abused. It is shown how the child manages to modify crucial schemes: She learns to permit ambivalent feelings regarding the culprit, to differentiate people who are trustworthy from people who are not, to develop a healthy self-esteem and to defend herself.