Games children play: board games in psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Children of latency age have typically outgrown dramatic play but have not yet developed the ability to talk about their thoughts and feelings in therapy; at this stage they often play structured board games, during their own playtime and during therapy sessions. This article discusses ways to use board-game play therapeutically, by watching the way children stretch and bend the rules to display their psychological self-states, and by interpreting their experiences within the play.