Resilience in childhood

―From a process of play therapy―

Abstract

　　The process and outcome, as well as the ability, of a person overcoming and adapting successfully to a psychologically unhealthy state the person temporarily fell into after experiencing a difficult situation are referred to as resilience.

　　In resilience study, attention is often focused on the ability. Some theoretical studies place an eye on the process, but there are few practical studies doing so.

　　The clinical practice for this analysis included a total of 29 sessions of play therapy with an 8-year-old boy (at that time) during my training.

　　Thus, this study was conducted to examine the resilience process for the purpose of reviewing the process of play therapy using the concept of resilience.

　　Consequently, significant changes observed in the play of boys, along with favorable reports obtained from their daily lives, support the efficacy of play therapy.

　　Classification and conversion into numerical values of resilience factors with regard to speech and behavior during play therapy in this study found that at early stages, the “independence/self-control,” “emotional adjustment” functions as personal factors of resilience were often counted as negative aspects.

　　However, the rating of “independence/self-control” and “emotional adjustment” was also found to gradually improve with these functions counted as positive aspects.

　　The study demonstrated that the significance of play therapy could be directly explained by analyzing the process of play therapy in practicing clinical psychology from the perspective of resilience factors.

　　It also suggested a possibility of identifying resilience factors that could greatly affect the adaptation process.