Play Therapy Game No. 13

(Play Therapy Student)

One of my favorite games to play as a child was Gold Fish. I remember playing every chance I got, and I remember getting a new deck of cards pretty regularly. What I find interesting is that when I sat down to create a therapeutic version of Gold Fish I could not remember the premise of the game. I goggled some instructions to remind me of the rules of my favorite childhood game, but even after reading the instructions I could not remember the rules.
I believe that expressing you emotions are an essential part of development. Some individuals grow up in homes in which the family members express their love and appreciation for each other, and other’s grow up in love less homes. A way to not allow our environment to negatively affect you is to actively work on the areas that were lacking in the home. This game will allow everyone to express themselves in relation to their emotions. It will force you to remember a happy time, or a sad time, or a disappointing time. I think that this game has the potential to be extremely therapeutic with more mature participants.
There would be around fifty cards similar to the ones in the picture. Each player is dealt three to five cards, the number of cards vary depending on the number of participants. All remaining cards are placed face down in a draw pile.
The person to the right of the dealer goes first. The player whose turn it is asks for a specific card from another player “Kenya, can I have your happy face please,” if Kenya has a happy face she has to give it to the person who asked and tell a time that she was happy. If she did not have the card then the person who asked has to share a time when they were happy and pull another card from the pile.
You can play this play therapy game until there are no more cards in the deck. The intent of the game is not to win or lose, but to express yourself and have fun doing it.