Play in body psychotherapy

Abstract

From a body psychotherapy perspective, clients are often seeking ways to cope with issues stemming from early traumas. Yet body psychotherapy is concerned with more than just helping people to become ‘untraumatised’; it endeavours to support the client’s reconnection with their essential nature, or core state, which is characterised by creativity, compassion, joy, curiosity, intuition, and playfulness. The purpose of this essay is to increase curiosity about, and contribute to the reflection on, the use of play in psychotherapy. By integrating theory, clinical vignettes, and the author’s personal reflections (as student, therapist and client), the author will explore how play can assist body psychotherapy clients with trauma-recovery, how it is implicit in a client’s progression towards vibrant wellbeing within body psychotherapy, and how (re)learning how to play can lead to radical change on both a personal and societal level.