This article focuses on the play therapy journey of a child who has undergone physical illness and abuse and documents the changes that have occurred over two years. Initially, there was much ambiguity surrounding the family dynamics, school environment, and personal adjustments like socioeconomic status. Here the therapist reflects on the invasion, attack, and destruction of the inner mind, exemplified by the violent theme evident in her play process, acknowledging the urgent need for protection and highlighting the struggle to establish a structured and disentangled thought process. Over time, symbolism emerged in the middle phase of the therapy: the therapist and the client worked together in adventures phantasy and medical role-plays to explore the mental world and to process the loss of the physical illness.
The therapist aligns with the client's experiences of struggling in the face of natural selection, navigating harsh environments, and confronting innate flaws. By nurturing the growth of their vulnerable inner selves and bolstering the courage of their psyche, they navigate the transition into adolescence. This clinical intervention facilitates a reevaluation of trauma and boundaries and enables both the child and therapist to move beyond fragmented inner selves and respond constructively to the deep bond in their therapeutic relationship.
The aim of this paper is to explore the archetype of the child and illness and how to interact with a child experiencing illness using play therapy. Given the abundance of unconscious material in the play therapy materials, the researchers utilize alchemical hermeneutics (Romanyshyn, 2007) to analyze the materials and gain insights into the child's process of mourning their loss of health and how to address traumatic experiences arising from the illness and child archetype. The unconscious connotations within the ontology of research necessitate accessing unconscious knowledge to incorporate its power into the knowledge construction process. To achieve this, researchers employ alchemical hermeneutics (Romanyshyn, 2007). In their study, the researchers employed three process elements outlined by Romanyshyn (2013, pp. 318-324), namely "approach," "process," and "method," to analyze the images in their artwork. Romanyshyn (2013) argues that incorporating unconscious forces into research requires poetic realism. In contrast to empirical realism, poetic realism emphasizes the symbolic and unconscious aspects of psychology and life, such as dreams, fantasies, and images. These aspects cannot be measured by realism, yet they hold singular significance in poetic realism. To enhance the essence of poetic realism, it is crucial to focus on the "imaginal" third world that lies between "reality" and "experience" (Romanyshyn, 2013). The play is set within this transitional world, which has the potential to hold unconscious material for researchers to investigate.
Keywords: domestic violence trauma, physically ill children, play therapy, archetype.