Date of Award

Spring 5-2-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Expressive Therapies

First Advisor

Raquel Stephenson

Abstract

This research investigates the impact of play-centered art therapy on parentified adult caregivers, focusing on how creative interventions utilizing elements of play can support identity development, self-compassion, and relational capacity. The literature indicates that childhood parentification leads to identity loss and burnout, but creative play can foster neuroplasticity and emotional processing by allowing adults to externalize harmful narratives that have been internalized. To explore these concepts, the author conducted four sessions over six weeks with an adult participant at a private outpatient practice in Massachusetts. Play-centered activities included free collaging, puppet-making, and clay modeling, often involving moments of parallel play between the author and the client. The process revealed that externalization catalyzes self-compassion and lays the foundation for exploring identity. It additionally revealed that parallel play provided opportunities for corrective experiences from hyper-responsibility, fostering relational authenticity and secure attachment. Future applications should move toward randomized controlled trials and longitudinal studies across diverse sociocultural populations to objectively evaluate the long-term efficacy of these creative tools.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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