Hermine Hg-Hellmuth's Theory Of Play Therapy

If asked to picture a therapy session, what does your mind conjure up? If you are like most people you have probably depicted a scene where a therapist is sitting in a chair listening as a client rambles on about their problems, but what happens if the client is still learning how to form sentences and talk about their emotions? For children the “classic therapy session” might not always be possible, and because of this therapists began to look at therapy in new ways. As the saying goes, “actions speak louder than words,” and depending on the client, sometimes that is all the therapist has to go off of. That is why Hermine Hug-Hellmuth created a new form of therapy known as play therapy. Even though the guidelines for play therapy are continuing

Even though this was her most well-known accomplishment, Hermine also accomplished the feats of being the first woman to gain a doctorate degree in physics from the University of Vienna, and of becoming the world’s first psychoanalyst to specialize in working with children patients (Maclean, 1986). Hermine was the first to create the idea of play therapy, but other members of the psychology world have continued to further the criteria such as Anna Freud, Virginia Axline, and Roger Phillips (“Play Therapy”,

When a child is put into play therapy, what they will experience is something much different than a classic therapy scene, but the underlying idea is still the same. The child would be placed in a room filled with toys, puppets, games, and many other creative outlets. Depending on the approach of the therapist depends on how the child is able to interact with these objects. If the therapist chooses to pursue a non-directive therapy session then the child will be able to do as they please. The purpose behind this approach is that when given the freedom to play freely, children will resolve their issues on their own (“Play Therapy”, 2015). On the opposite end, some therapists chose the directed play therapy approach where the therapist may ask the child to perform specific tasks such as acting out a scene with puppets or drawing a picture of their family. Many believe that this approach leads to faster, better results because no pressure is placed on the child to fix their own problems, something that they might not be completely capable of at a young age (“Directive vs Non-Directive Play Therapy”, 2010). At its basis, many forms of therapy stem from the same basic ideas, for play therapy its’ basis can be traced back to Sigmund Freud and his