ABSTRACT
Educational psychotherapy takes place in a potential space between the educational psychotherapist and the child or adolescent. The use of play, drawing, stories, and suchlike, in educational psychotherapy, lends itself to communication in a way that is different from talking directly with children or adolescents about the external reality of their lives or their internal fantasies and feelings. The choice of a theme to fit a child’s particular emotional conflict is also an indirect communication from the educational psychotherapist that the conflict can be thought about. It gives the child permission to explore feelings indirectly, through the metaphor of the story. Games may be used in a number of ways to address emotional issues in educational psychotherapy. Structured games with rules can play a useful part. In educational psychotherapy competitive games may be played between the child and the educational psychotherapist, who does not, on the whole, mind losing.
