The Play Is the Thing: Using Self-Constructed Board Games in Family Therapy

Interventions that involve children or the entire family can be particularly challenging, especially if the therapist relies on the expected modus operandi of therapy—talk. The following intervention provides a means by which talk is integrated into an activity that children and adults can easily relate to but in a way that is more directly relevant to their situation. Games have been used for many years in the area of play therapy and in working with children and adolescents (Ariel, 1986; Erickson, 1963; Moustakas, 1967; Singer and Singer, 1977). Yet, commercial games are, of necessity, limited in their content and application. The use of a self-constructed game is based on the use of metaphor (Roberts, 1987), whereby the game itself is isomorphic to the situation that the family or child is attempting to resolve.