A longtime Wisconsin educator, Linda Bergerson taught music and produced numerous student concerts. Having also served as a guidance counselor, Linda Bergerson led group therapy sessions for children whose parents had divorced.
An adverse early life experience that affects many children, divorce may present behavioral symptoms that indicate a need for professional help. These include separation anxiety, sleeping issues, compulsive behaviors, and behavioral challenges.
Play therapy is one route to addressing this, as it encourages the creation of neural connections that help process traumatic life experiences and move toward healthy development. With adverse effects of trauma lingering in the brain’s nonverbal areas, the ability to work through experiences and actively communicate them is essential. Play therapy allows a means of this that does not require expressing feelings directly or verbally.
One strategy of expressing feelings through play starts with defining a small crayon collection as having colors, each representing an emotion. Starting with a shape prompt such as a heart or a tree, kids use the colors to visualize their feelings. Another worthwhile activity is storytelling, with a fictional character representing aspects of the child’s thought processes and emotions related to traumatic family events. Similarly, observing children as they play with proxies such as action figures or dolls provides insight into their state of mind about the divorce process.
