ABSTRACT
Therapists can sometimes miss clients’ deeper wounds and need for healing by focusing too much on the client’s stated presenting problem or symptom reduction. While proper assessment is needed to determine the client’s needs and goals for treatment, sometimes working on problems without addressing the root of the problems only creates surface relief for clients, and they must return to therapy again and again, or worse, feel that therapy is ineffective for them. Authors propose that clients’ Core Needs should not be neglected. In this chapter, authors review other theorists’ ideas of core needs, including Maslow and Glasser and Beck’s core beliefs. Authors present their own Core Needs Pyramid, identifying the following Core Needs of clients: Safety & Security, Empowerment & Control, Inner Value and Relationship. For each Core Need, a table is presented of the Need and its Fears and Symptoms. Creative Play Therapy seeks to help clients express their Core Needs which drive symptoms and emotional pain so that clients can achieve thorough and deep healing.
