ABSTRACT
There are some obvious similarities between this description and the therapist’s role outlined in earlier chapters. But there are also some clear differences. The first of these differences relates to the setting. The child therapy described here was not done in a group, with group members being chosen as auxiliary egos to act out characters in the child’s story, and with the director maintaining a separate position. Instead, the characters were represented by puppets, animated by the child or by the therapist. As a result, the therapist had to move fluidly between the roles of director and auxiliary, maintaining the roles of producer, therapist and analyst
while at the same time engaging fully in co-operative play as the child’s auxiliary ego. This combination of roles and tasks, in an atmosphere of uninterrupted play, could only be achieved if the therapist flowed freely with all that emerged. This involved a certain receptiveness to the energies to be released in the therapy room and a trust in their power. In his discussion of the beginning of an interview, Max Clayton calls this preparatory time the ‘creation of readiness’.
