Puppets in psychotherapy serve a variety of purposes and can be remarkably transformative. They invite clients into the make-belive world where anything is possible. Working with puppets in psychotherapy can enhance mentalization, foster empathy, and heal past emotional wounds. It provides clients with an opportunity to imagine, play, and replay challenging future situations; a rehearse for real life. Puppetry work can also be empowering, helping to build and strengthen self-esteem. When the client needs protection the puppet is there to do the actions for him/her.
If you are curious on how to work with puppets in psychotherapy, I suggest that you read some of the books and articles in the Literature section.
And finally some quotes:
”…all should find in puppetry a vital, dynamic and flexible medium for work with children.(…) It takes children at their level and in their language. It gives them the opportunity to release in dramatic action those things they feel but cannot or will not express in words.”
(Jenkins & Beckh 1942, p.119 in Schaefer & Cangelosi 2002)
”…over time, particularly in the puppet making group, the creative process was being used to repair disturbed bod images, to bring together dissociated parts of the self, and to provide the artists with a sense of history, causality, and meaning. Over time I observed a diminishment of feelings of alienation…”
(Lani Gerity in Bernier 2005)
”Since the puppets are in fact the hands of the puppet player, these hands have for purposes of the play ceased to be a part of the child and are the bodies of the puppets. Aggressive or other tabooed actions undertaken by these hands are therefore, for purposes of the play, not the actions of the child manipulating the puppet but the actions of the puppet. If the puppet does wrong, it is the puppet, not the child, that is to be censured or punished.”
(Jenkins & Beckh 1942, p.117 in Schaefer & Cangelosi 2002)
”…puppet shows in an unstructured set-up can lead to satisfactory results. The goals must be set according to the intelligence and ability of the individual child. The therapist must be willing and able to deal with an initial phase of disruption, disorganization and frustration…”
(Kors 1964, p.56)
”The symbolic characters can give a free expression of aggression without causing anxiety or fear in the child, and also can give a free expression of love.”
(Bender & Woltmann 1936)