Kathryn de Bruin

Hide and Seek in Play Therapy: San Diego Play Therapists to present at CALAPT

The game hide and seek has been played by children for years. While it may seem like an innocent game for the sake of having fun, hide and seek involves important skills and   goes a far way to further children’s development. The precursor to hide and seek is the game peekaboo and can be initiated by infants as young as four months old child. Hide and seek is often a favorite game for children for years and it is not unusual for preteens to still engage in some form of this play. Even beyond the teen years we see adults engage the relational dance of pursuit and withdrawal with friends and romantic partnerships. 

There are many ways to play this game. Variations include hiding and finding self, other or objects, using objects or toys such as puppets or masks to hide self. The game is played at different stages in treatment and for many different reasons. These games are particularly pertinent among children presenting problems such as attachment difficulties and anxiety disorders. Since anxiety disorders are the number 1 reason that children are referred for therapy, it becomes likely that we will be exposed to children wanting to play hide and seek in our play room. Recognizing the importance of this game is essential. Because this game is a part of our culture and so common, it is easy to miss the therapeutic themes that it represents. Children can initiate this game for a number of reasons, including as a way to gain mastery over an issue in their lives, as a way to grieve and deal with loss, as a way to exercise power and gain control of something, as a way to practice reaching out in relationships, as a way to achieve safety and to build trust. Deciphering the motive for the game will determine how we respond to the game and facilitate the play theme.