Counselor's Spotlight

Daphne Mack
              Bowerman Elementary &
              Boyd Elementary

Would you describe school counseling as your “dream job?” Daphne Mack does. Mack’s counseling duties are split between two Springfield, MO schools: four days per week at Bowerman Elementary and one day at Boyd Elementary school where her office is little more than a closet.

These are both Title I schools with over 80% of the students on free/reduced lunch, yet counseling is literally “child’s play” for Mack. She feels truly fortunate to spend most of her day in play therapy with her elementary students, but is quick to add that play therapy can be effective for older students and family counseling as well.

Mack was introduced to play therapy while pursuing her Master’s degree in counseling at Missouri State University in Springfield and was immediately hooked. Her quest to learn more about play therapy led her to enroll at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas where in May she will earn her post-graduate certificate as a registered Play Therapist.

To explain why play therapy works, Mack says “Play is a child’s natural language,” quoting Dr. Garry Landreth whose book Play Therapy: the Art of the Relationship is considered one of the essential texts for child therapists. Mack explains that even preschool-age children with limited vocabulary are able to interact with toys representing their family members or their schoolmates to give a crystal clear picture of what is being experienced at home or school. Mack recommends the book School-Based Play Therapy by Drewes and Schaefer as a resource for therapy activities, and the Association for Play Therapy’s website at www.a4pt.org.

Mack even uses play to introduce classroom lessons. When she arrives to present a classroom lesson, a curious student often asks, “Ms. Mack, what’s in the Play Therapy Tool Box today?” pointing to her stylish Thirty-One tote bag that might contain puppets, scarves, Play Doh, cotton balls or any number of intriguing items to hook kids’ attention and launch the day’s lesson. For a class discussion on “differences” Mack uses hopscotch squares numbered 1-4. Children throw a bean bag onto the square of their choice, hop to the square, retrieved the bean bag and hop back. Then the child answers a question from an envelope with the same number as their hopscotch square, for example “What would make a child feel like they were different?”

Mack began using play as her primary method of therapy seven years ago as a newly graduated counselor. She got her principals on board before the school year even began by sharing the rationale and demonstrating some of the effective techniques. She invited her principals to sit in on some group play therapy sessions. They could see how engaged the kids were. Mack’s principals protect her time with students by having her only assigned staff support job being dismissal duty, which she uses as an opportunity to chat and connect with parents.

Daphne Mack’s coworkers are also believers in play therapy. Teachers would send a scowling, unruly child to Daphne Mack’s office and later the child would reappear smiling and more cooperative! With a child who was defiant in the classroom, Mack often allows him to select the game and even make up the rules by which they play it. After 20 minutes of getting to do things his way, the child feels more in control and is now ready to return to the classroom and “play by the teacher’s rules.”

Working with uncommunicative children can be especially challenging for counselors, but Mack finds play therapy effective for these young clients. A parent once asked Mack to work with her daughter who would not talk about what was troubling her. In Mack’s office the little girl chose figures to represent each of her family members as well as 4 buckets filled to the rim with animals, trees, cars and other toys. She arranged the family figures around the dining table of a doll house and then proceeded to dump the 4 buckets of toys all through the house! Through her actions the child demonstrated the chaos that was “burying” her family. Following this dramatic session the girl’s body language showed the relief she felt.

Mack holds off group therapy until after Christmas break to insure that she does not mistake school adjustment issues for more serious problems. Mack uses a non-directive approach, quietly observing the interaction between the boys and their toy selections as they add dragons, animals, plants, super heroes, vehicles and other figurines to their “group place” in the sandtray. She occasionally makes comments like “Oh, you put the lion there” to encourage reflection and elicit revealing comments by the children. When the scene is completed, each boy gets a chance to tell Mack about it from his viewpoint. A different child will be given a chance to act as leader each session. Mack encourages counselors to try sandplay with older students. Students having academic issues could be asked to create a school scene, and then explain why they chose a particular figurine for the teacher or classmates, or why they positioned themselves the way they did in the classroom. While playing Hasbro’s game called Don’t Break the Ice, the counselor and student can take turns answering a personal question each time one knocks out an ice block like “tell about an instance when you felt scared.” The game may be lost when the ice breaks and the polar bear falls though, but the goal is for the student to experience a psychological breakthrough.

With games and toys in her therapeutic toolbox, Daphne Mack makes counseling fun and every student feel like a winner!