Puppet Therapy Helps Patients to Express Thoughts, Feelings

Many people struggle to express their thoughts and feelings during behavioral health therapy.

Children, for example, might be too young or might lack the verbal skills to communicate effectively. Other patients might have cognitive limitations or might be seeking therapy because of an experience so traumatic that it's difficult to discuss. To address this issue, Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Hoffman Estates, Ill., has added puppet therapy to the range of treatment modalities available through the hospital's Expressive Therapy Department.

Puppet therapy enables patients to "work out feelings, traumatic situations or attitudes, and to experiment with new and positive behaviors" by using puppets to express themselves, says Francine McGouey, ABBHH Chief Operating Officer. The hospital is using puppet therapy, when appropriate, to facilitate individual and group therapy. It has worked very effectively for young patients "who don't have the vocabulary or the concepts to help therapists understand what their trauma has been and what it has meant to them," McGouey says. "If they can use a puppet or a group of puppets - like a family constellation of puppets - they can communicate."

ABBHH therapists have found that children "are very capable of describing scenarios through the use of puppets and portraying the events and actions that have occurred, and their responses, in a way that they have not been able to express just with the use of words," McGouey says. Puppet therapy also can work well for adults attempting to cope with a variety of behavioral issues, such as substance abuse, difficult family or work relationships, or physical or psychological abuse, McGouey says.

ABBHH recently sponsored a Psychodramatic Puppet Training Seminar "to broaden the perception about how this therapy can be used," McGouey says. About 50 ABBHH staff members attended the seminar conducted by Ted Rubenstein, an expert in psychodrama therapy from the Institute for Therapy Through the Arts in Chicago.

The hospital's staff identified puppet therapy as a needed service about two years ago and worked with the hospital's foundation to raise funds to build a portable puppet theater. The campaign raised thousands of dollars, including donations from ABBHH staff members.

The hospital's physicians and therapists provided input about the design of the theater, and several ABBHH expressive therapists spearheaded the search for appropriate puppets.

"It's through the contributions of our staff and physicians that we have this now," says McGouey, who credits the Alexian Brothers and their values for fostering an atmosphere in which staff members feel empowered to develop unique approaches to patient care. "The Brothers have dedicated themselves to maintaining and helping the psychiatric services flourish," she says.  "That support allows us to work on developing additional forms of therapy and to move beyond the basics of therapy to develop interventions that we might not otherwise be able to have."