Widening the Screen: Playful Responses to Challenges in Online Therapy with Children and Families

Abstract

The growing demand for online work with children, youngsters and their families during the Covid19 pandemic presented new challenges. The well‐trodden roads had to be left. In this article we explore novel online ideas in systemic and narrative therapy. Playfulness in online work invites curiosity, vividness and collaboration, and vice versa. We conceive of it as an antidote for pitfalls and as an inspiration for responses to the threat of reductionism that lurks around the corner, especially in online work. It offers a stepping stone to a serious exploration and sharing of experiences, stories and meanings that help to develop richer understandings and more creative ideas. It is a source of new ways of relating for family members as well as for the therapist and the family. Finally, playfulness enables the weaving of threads and experiencing a sense of continuity between sessions. We illustrate our quest using several case stories. Practitioner points: Playfulness as an atmosphere, attitude and intervention in online work invites curiosity, vividness and collaboration (and vice versa) while opening new therapeutic possibilities. Keeping a broad systemic scope and inviting members of the actual and imaginary network works as an antidote to the threat of reductionism in online therapy. A playful use of the online medium creates new relational dances between family members as well as between the therapist and the family.