[Kinderpsychodrama in a child guidance centre]

Kinderpsychodrama allows conflicts of children to become apparent in a specific sheltered environment. These conflicts often arise when children's needs for relationship, self esteem and self efficacy either are not sufficiently recognized by their caregivers and/or cannot be answered in a helpful way. This can lead to internalizing disorders like loss of self reliance, social fear, and depressive withdrawal on the one hand or to externalizing symptoms like oppositional, impulsive and aggressive behavior disorders on the other hand which endanger socio-emotional development. Kinderpsychodrama is seen to cushion children's dysfunctional conflict solutions and solve them with the therapists' help. Therapists realize the themes set on the scene during the play of the children's group; they mirror the scenes and encourage children to act in a different way making use of children's creativity during play as well as the support of the group. Children's chosen role serves as a secure base allowing them to find solutions for their conflicts. The development of each child as well as his/her themes becoming evident during the course of the group are made transparent to their parents during accompanying counseling sessions. We illustrate this therapeutic method by casuistics of our children therapy group.