Exploring My Self-Esteem

Arley Loeffler, LCSW

This non-threatening game draws on each child’s experience and emotions, revealing for the therapist how children see themselves and how they typically deal with their feelings. Sentence completion cards deal directly with self-esteem issues, while other game elements elicit clinical information indirectly. Players have the opportunity, for example, to tell stories about various aspects of their world, thereby giving the therapist a chance to examine feelings, relationships, and responses to the events presented in the stories.

The therapist can select meaningful material from the child’s stories and incorporate it in the child’s treatment. As the game is played, the therapist can tell stories, too, modelling self-expression and showing children that feelings are normal and that the impulses resulting from strong feelings can be managed. The game can be played by a therapist and up to 5 children.