Mark Tarlow and the Role of Play And Disclosure in Psychiatry
Self-disclosure and therapy sessions
Self-disclosure generally refers to the concept of the therapist disclosing to the patient he is handling his own personal experiences that they have gone through and how they handled them. This is often done in an attempt to win the trust of the patient and the confidence in you that you hold a common ground with them. It is also an attempt to let the patient know that the therapist is one who can be trusted with the information they are giving since they too have been in a similar situation. My persona opinion on self-disclosure is that it should be the last device in the options of the therapist. The therapist should not disclose the content of their lives and psyche to the patient as this may amount to the therapist attempting to influence the patient to look at themselves as the therapist looks at himself, yet the therapist should strive to help the patient have an objective and balanced look at their situation. It also means the therapist tries to scale up or scale down the psychological challenge of the patient to theirs, yet each patient has unique levels of individual challenges. However, the self-disclosure may in special circumstances be used in a case-specific and as a way of fortifying the decisions already made by the patient and not manipulating the patient to make the decision. Once you have walked with the patient through...
Here, if found by the patient, the therapist should only reveal information that is helpful in the counselling session. His developmental history can be revealed so that it can act as guide for the patient in the process of self-discovery and leading them to the tipping point. I have in some instances revealed events from personal life, but only those that do not have attachment to my relationship dynamics since I believe each relationship is unique in its own way.
Games played during psychotherapy
The hide and seek is an instrumental game to play with the patient and I have often used it. There are is also another game that I often use in giving the patient the sense of power and control over situations, this is the role play game. Here, I pass the button of power and authority to the patient, then I give them a short anecdote of a patient, then ask them what they would advise the patient. I then relate their handling of the situation to their own challenge. This game gives the patient the temporary…
