Welcome to Litsy!

Recommendation to my 18-year-old sister, who is learning all about psychology, and just took an in-service on play therapy. I went to quarter of the way towards a certified play therapist certificate, before going another direction. That‘s really amazing to understand how children and their brains work, how resilient they are.

Dibs is an uncommunicative 'difficult' boy who is brought by his parents to children's counsellor, Virginia Axline, to 'fix'. Axline's case study is rightly a classic in the counselling literature, not because of its technical detail (it very deliberately has none), but because of the testimony it gives of the capacity for the non- judgemental therapeutic relationship to tap into a person's potential for growth and healing. Dibs is inspirational ❤

Continuing my reviews of books I read when I'm sick or need a pick-me-up, I was assigned this book in university and loved it so much I kept it ... all other books were sold as I was a poor student. Even if you are not majoring in psych or social work, it will touch your heart.

Despite having been published more than 50 years ago, this book barely feels dated at all. (The little bit that does comes from some of the conversational language in use at the time.) It's a poignant, pointed look at child development, family life, and the emphasis we place on appearances and what's "normal." This was my "main character with a mental illness" book for #ReadHarder2016, and was an unexpected delight.