The Nature and Application of Adlerian Play Therapy: A Systematic Review

Play is essential for children because it can train language skills, cognitive, social skills, and other contributions to the development of personality. Play therapy is an effective method to respond to children’s mental needs. Play therapists use toys and play materials to help children concretely communicate their needs. A play therapy approach is Adlerian play therapy. In Adlerian play therapy, play therapists use the concepts of Alfred Adler's individual psychology. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the nature and application of Adlerian play therapy.

This was a systematic review study. The research methodology was also based on collecting, classifying, and summarizing the findings of scientific research articles related to Adlerian play therapy between 2000 - 2019, collected from domestic and international databases. The keywords “play therapy, Adlerian play therapy, and individual psychology” were considered in this research. The domestic databases included Civilica, Magiran, SID, Noormags; the international databases included Eric, Ebsco, Google Scholar, Scopus, Science Direct, and PubMed. In total, 98 articles were selected in the initial search; however, 82 articles were deleted due to not being relevant to the Adlerian approach. Seventeen articles were selected with the title Adlerian play therapy. Among them, one article was removed due to being old (obsolescence), 8 articles due to review, and one article due to duplication in several databases. Finally, 7 articles were selected for this review. The inclusion criteria of the study were having an Adlerian approach; being a quantitative study; being original research, and the publication of the articles to range between 2000 and 2019. The exclusion criteria of the study also included having different approaches (e.g., cognitive, behavioral, etc.) plus Adlerian approach, review studies, and articles published before 2000 AD.

The present review study indicated that play therapy was effective in working with children with various problems in multiple settings, including schools. Adlerian play therapy reduced anxiety and maladaptive perfectionism, reduced challenging and destructive behaviors, increased task performance, and improved social skills as well as general health in children. Teachers also reported that they experienced less stress in their relationships with students who received Adlerian play therapy. This treatment effectively improved the health of neglected children. These findings highlighted the clinical significance of Adlerian play therapy in children's behaviors.

The obtained findings suggested that Adlerian play therapy can be used as a promising intervention for children with different problems. Thus, it is recommended that Adlerian play therapy be used as a therapeutic intervention in pilot projects in children with various problems.