A Fun Little Game

Just returned from the Kentucky Association for Play Therapy annual conference.  This year's speaker was the fabulous Eliana Gil.  There's so much I could share about her that I may just have to do a separate post about this amazing woman.

What I love most about attending these conferences is how inspired I feel after them.  I thought I would share one of the ideas Eliana told us about; it's this sweet little game called Think-Ets.  I purchased mine right there at the conference from my favorite play therapy store, the Self Esteem Shop.

Think-Ets is simply 15 little trinkets, as you see above, that come in a small pouch with instructions for some ideas you can do with the trinkets.  No two pouches of trinkets are exactly the same.  They are part memory, thinking, creativity, and story-telling.  The things you could do with these trinkets are endless.

Meredith and I played around with them this morning.  One of the funnest things we decided to do was to have one of us choose any 6 trinkets and then the other had to quickly create and tell a story using the chosen trinkets.  Meredith chose the girl, saw, star, cup/chalice, book, and alligator/crocodile for me.  Here's my silly little story:

Once upon a time there was a girl who was sitting outside reading a book.

Along came an alligator who growled at the girl, "I'm gonna get you!"

She took a saw, pointed it at the alligator and responded, "No, don't get me."

The alligator moved closer and again growled at the girl, "I'm gonna get you!"

For a second time she pointed the saw at the alligator and responded, "No, don't get me."

A third time the alligator moved even closer and growled, "I'm gonna get you!"

This time the girl pointed the saw and said, "Please, don't get me!"

The alligator stepped back and said, "Okay," and then wandered off.

The girl was extremely shook up, yet relieved.

By then it had become dark outside.  The girl looked up and noticed the first star of the night.

She was still shaken so she drank a glass of wine and felt better.

The End

And what did Meredith say in response?  Mom, girls don't drink wine!  Oops, yep.  You're right.

You play therapists reading this post can interpret this story as a projective if you want.  But I'm telling you, that little wooden cup looks just like a wine chalice.  And I know, alligators don't growl.  But the wonderful thing about storytelling and fantasy is they CAN.