Theraplay

Theraplay is an play therapy which has intention of helping parents and children build better attachment relationships through attachment-based play. It was developed in 1967 in Chicago by Ann M. Jernberg.

History of Theraplay
Ann Jernberg, Ph.D., became 1967 the Director of Psychological Services for the new Chicago Head Start program with one of her assistants Phyllis Booth. She and her team were asked to identify children in need of psychological services and refer them to existing treatment centers. However, there were very few resources for childrens' mental health at the time, and the existing ones could not possibly handle the hundreds of children identified as needing help. From that starting point Ann Jernberg started to create her own program that would treat children at the Head Start centers, rather than at outlying clinics, and could use paraprofessionals supervised by mental health professionals to do the actual work. The result was a model based upon healthy parent-infant attacment and interaction which borrowed elements from the work of Austin Des Lauriers and Viola Brody.

The therapeutic efficacy of Theraplay has not yet been proven scientifically. Some contend, however, that it is virtually impossible to scientifically prove the efficacy of any psychotherapeutic modality, new or old. They argue that the variables are simply too vast, infinite in fact, making a controlled experiment impossible. In fact, the efficacy of several scientifically-based therapies, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, has been well established as one of the most effective forms of treatment for many mental illnesses. Theraplay or other Creative Arts Therapies, not unlike Psychoanalysis, may elude scientific validation as the goals and methods of the modality is fundamentally based in art, not science.

Attachment theory, upon which Theraplay is founded, is also controversial. While accepted by many within the therapeutic community, its application to assessment, diagnostics, and therapy has been widely called into question by psychologists who adhere to the Scientist-Practitioner model of practice.