Tatjana Gjurković TSTA-P
Alina Comendant PTSTA-P
Field of audience: C,P

Language: English
Level of audience: All

As therapists, our own experiences, which are inherently shaped by the legacy we bring to the play therapy room, inform our ability to provide a safe environment for children to share their stories and experiences. Working with aggressiveness, whether it’s our own or that of a young child, involves a continuous journey of attunement and mis-attunement.

Considering the vulnerable nature of a child’s developmental years and the influence of their family script, it is essential to reflect on how we learn how to be aggressive from our parental figures and culture. To ask ourselves about the legitimacy shared with our clients.
By looking to ourselves- as transactional analysis practitioners- and the many tools that we have to understand aggression and foster healthy ways of expressing ourselves, we reinforce that everything occurring in your sessions is a shared experience- and a possible reenactment. These shared experiences are the doorway into greater depths of healing and transformation.

In the workshop, we propose a place for reflection and creative play—a place where the following questions might be serve as a starting point:

How do parental messages regarding aggression affect us as child/adolescent therapists?
How does the legacy we hold within us influence how we react to a child who behaves aggressively, whether towards us or during play?
What fears do we have concerning the child’s aggression?
How do we think about protecting ourselves and our clients?