Dr. Landreth: Setting Boundaries In The Playroom

While watching the video Dr. Landreth discussed the importance of setting limits and boundaries with the children in the playroom. It is important to have boundaries in all your relationships, not just with children. If an individual does not set boundaries about his or herself, others will not value them. It is especially important to set boundaries with children. The boundaries need to be consistent; otherwise, the child will not value the therapeutic relationship. Dr. Landreth continues to explain that in order to accept the child, the therapist needs to set limits. If limits are not set, the therapist will worry about the child’s safety rather than accepting the behavior. By setting limits, the therapist can focus on accepting the child.

Furthermore, telling children “stop that” or “don’t do that” puts the therapist in control rather than putting responsibility on the child to make a decision. Another thing that stood out was that limits are set to protect the child from guilt. If the therapist allows the child to harm or pour paint on them, the child may experience irrational thoughts of guilt, such as, thinking that they have hurt the therapist. If a limit is needed, it is important to set the limit; otherwise, children will become manipulative and try to get what they want. That is why it is also important to maintain consistency once the limit has been set.
The most beneficial thing I learned was when to set a limit.

Limits are set if there are harmful or dangerous behaviors that can harm the child or therapist. It is important to be firm with the child. For example, Dr. Landreth explained, “If a child is going to hit me with a hammer and I see his hand coming down to strike me, I will stop that child by grabbing his arm.” Dr. Landreth mentioned that the therapist might need to get physical to stop the child from harming by grabbing the child’s arm. Being firm in your action and stating, “I know you want to hit me, but I am not for hitting.” Furthermore, it is always important to give the child an alternative to be able to express such behaviors by offering the child to hit the bobo doll

instead.
Another limit to set is if the child is continually leaving the playroom. This behavior disrupts the therapeutic process. A helpful tool and perspective that Dr. Landreth provided was, not to bring a timer to indicate that the time is up. Throughout the play session, the child is in the lead. However, when the time is up, the therapist takes the lead and is now in charge of telling the child that their time is up. If the therapist uses a timer, therapist is relieved of that responsibly and the child will now blame the timer and assume that the therapist does not have a say when the time is up. Having the child leave the playroom when time is up should be an issue between the therapist and child, not between timer and child. The timer confuses the child and the therapist is not seen as an important factor of telling the child that time is up.
Dr.

Landreth gave a perfect reason for why children should not take things from the playroom. He explained that sometimes children want to take something from the playroom to remind them of your relationship with them. However, Dr. Landreth explained that this teaches children to think that materialistic things are important. Hence, it is more valuable to remind the child that what is important is what they feel in their heart.

This challenged me because I never thought of not allowing a child take something for that reason. I would think that maybe giving the child a sticker or something small would be acceptable. However, Dr. Landreth mentioned that a child does not need a sticker or a stamp on their hand to remind them of the playroom. The only thing the child should be allowed to take home is their painting.

What made me feel uncomfortable was when Dr. Landreth mentioned that if a child wanted to sit on his lap and hug him, he would allow it. I would feel very uncomfortable if a child wanted to hug me or sit on my lap. Even if the behavior were to show appreciation, it would make feel uncomfortable. I feel uneasy when children want to get close to me or hug

me.
The technique and intervention that pushed my buttons was when Dr. Landreth explained that at times he needed to get physical with a child to stop a harmful behavior. If a child were to hit me, I would try to move out of the way, but I would never be able to hold their arm to stop the behavior. Although Dr. Landreth techniques may make me feel uncomfortable at times, I still need practice to learn how to implement them. There are not any techniques I would least likely use. However, I am a bit hesitant to use many techniques that Dr. Landreth suggested.