ABSTRACT
Play is children's work, and whenever children are engaged in play they are 'doing. In psychotherapy, play is a way of restoring the growth and health of a child who is experiencing difficulties and problems. In play psychotherapy, the therapist is trying to help children to grow and to help them get rid of some of the mechanisms that prevent growth. The therapist needs to understand the dream and its frightening aspects by observing the play, the child's manipulations of particular materials and toys, and the feelings with which he or she endows them. In the transference relationship between the child and the therapist, the child projects his or her early object-representative feelings onto the therapist and reacts to the therapist as if he or she contained all these feelings. The termination process is part of the ongoing therapy. Termination does differ from patient to patient.
