Psychoanalysis and Children:
Understanding Emotional Development Through Play
What Is Child Psychoanalysis?
Children think through play. In child psychoanalysis, play serves as a child’s natural language and primary way of expressing thoughts, feelings, fears, and wishes that may be difficult—or impossible—to communicate directly through words.
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When psychoanalysts engage in psychoanalytic therapy with children, they follow children into their imaginative world. Sometimes the analyst takes a role in the child’s play, sometimes follows the child’s direction, and sometimes acts as an attentive listener. Throughout the process, the goal is to provide emotional understanding and help children make sense of feelings that may otherwise seem confusing, overwhelming, or frightening.
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Unlike approaches that focus primarily on behavior management, child psychoanalysis seeks to understand the emotional meaning behind a child’s actions, thoughts, and play experiences.
Why Play Is Essential to Emotional Development in Children
difficult to express openly. Through imaginative play, children communicate emotional struggles, anxieties, conflicts, and wishes in symbolic form.
How Psychoanalysts Use Play to Understand Children’s Feelings
Psychoanalysts are specifically trained to listen for underlying emotions rather than focusing only on concrete facts or behaviors. In the psychoanalytic setting, the child’s play becomes an important source of information about their internal emotional world.
Rather than directing the child or telling them how to behave, the psychoanalyst helps the child explore and understand feelings through play, conversation, and reflection. This process supports healthy emotional development, self-awareness, and emotional resilience.
A Real-Life Example of Child Psychoanalytic Therapy
The identifying characteristics in this example have been changed to protect the child’s privacy.
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Because of a pandemic surge, I must meet virtually today with my patient, a seven-year-old girl, instead of seeing her in person. She tells me that when we meet remotely, she feels “too lonely.”
At the beginning of the session, she approaches the camera without showing herself. Instead, she places two toy trains in front of the screen. One is a duplicate of a blue train car she brought to a session more than two years earlier, announcing that it “belonged” in my office. The other is her favorite red train car.
As she shows me the trains, I comment:
The identifying characteristics in this example have been changed to protect the child’s privacy.
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Because of a pandemic surge, I must meet virtually today with my patient, a seven-year-old girl, instead of seeing her in person. She tells me that when we meet remotely, she feels “too lonely.”
At the beginning of the session, she approaches the camera without showing herself. Instead, she places two toy trains in front of the screen. One is a duplicate of a blue train car she brought to a session more than two years earlier, announcing that it “belonged” in my office. The other is her favorite red train car.
As she shows me the trains, I comment:
“It looks like there’s a way for you and me to be together today, even though you don’t like meeting virtually.”
She smiles and replies:
“Exactly.”
Encouraged by feeling understood, she continues:
“You didn’t help me in school today. All my classmates wanted to hurt me with their weapons. They are mean.”
Through her play and words, she communicates disappointment, fear, sadness, and anger. She is expressing feelings both about my absence in person and her anxiety about returning to school after the holidays.
Her discomfort quickly gives way to imagination. Turning back to the trains, she tells me that a “green” train car needs to appear.
I ask:
“The green car shows up?”
She responds:
“At school I have three friends, Dorothy, Alanis, and Dov. They are my detectives and they will search for who doesn’t like me and wants to hurt me.”
When I comment that her three friends—like the three train cars—help her feel safe and connected, she smiles broadly and says:
“I knew we could arrive at the station with our trains!”
By following her play and putting words to the feelings behind it, she gains confidence to discuss her fears about being left alone, feeling unsafe, and worrying that important people might not be available when she needs them.
How Psychoanalytic Therapy Helps Children’s Mental Health
This example illustrates how psychoanalytic psychotherapy for children uses both play and conversation to help children understand difficult emotions.
Supporting Emotional Resilience and Self-Awareness in Children
Through psychoanalytic treatment, children can:
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Express feelings safely through play
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Develop greater emotional awareness
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Understand fears and anxieties
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Process traumatic experiences
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Strengthen relationships with parents, caregivers, and peers
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Build emotional resilience and confidence
As emotional struggles become understood and named, children are often better able to manage them in healthy and productive ways.
Child Psychoanalysis and Emotional Growth
One of the primary goals of child psychoanalysis is to help children transform confusing or overwhelming emotional experiences into feelings that can be understood, spoken about, and managed safely.
By creating a secure therapeutic relationship, psychoanalytic treatment gives children the opportunity to explore their inner world while developing emotional skills that support lifelong mental health and well-being.
The Benefits of Psychoanalytic Treatment for Children
When children feel understood, they often become more capable of handling difficult emotions, relationships, and life challenges.
As my young patient described after returning to therapy following a two-week holiday:
“Oh, it’s just comfy to talk about these things.”
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That simple statement captures one of the central goals of psychoanalytic work with children: creating a safe space where emotional experiences can be explored, understood, and transformed into opportunities for growth.
Why Consider Psychoanalysis for Children?
Children often communicate their deepest concerns through play long before they can fully express them in words. Psychoanalysis for children provides a unique opportunity to understand those concerns, support healthy emotional development, and strengthen a child’s ability to navigate life’s challenges.
Through play, conversation, and emotional understanding, child psychoanalysis helps children develop the self-awareness, resilience, and emotional well-being needed for healthy growth and development.