A fairy tale is one of the genres of folklore and literature and has been known to mankind since the beginning of time. This usually magical text with a happy ending has always been read and passed from mouth to mouth, and only recently it has become clear that a fairy tale can act as an element of psychotherapy.
How useful is fairy tale therapy?
It turns out that immersion in a fairy tale can solve a number of issues in children and adults.
First, fairy tale therapy performs an educational function. With the help of a fairy tale, the child learns patterns and norms of behavior, morality. The educational goal with the help of reading fairy tales was pursued in ancient times, and then the legends were truly passed on from mouth to mouth.
Secondly, immersion in a fairy tale, listening to and supplementing the narration, a person develops attention, creativity, and imagination. These mechanisms work not only in children but also in adults. Therefore, it is not uncommon for a psychotherapist to use reading fairy tales during his sessions.
And thirdly, we can talk about fairy tale therapy as full-fledged psychotherapy if a person is completely immersed in the created fairy tale, there are fictional characters, the action of the fairy tale moves according to a given scenario. With full immersion in the game, fairy tale therapy has a healing effect.
Psychologist’s comment
“An interactive fairy tale is an example of drama therapy in action, where the fairy tale is staged and played by the participants themselves. They immerse themselves in the game, and not just watch it, live through various emotions, play different roles, overcome fear, break taboos, thereby gaining a new experience of interacting with themselves and the world. At the unconscious level, internal and social conflicts are resolved, freedom of expression appears, ”says child psychotherapist Alena Voloshenyuk.
Fairy tale therapy is useful for both children and their parents. And it has a particularly beneficial effect on children who have experienced traumatic situations.
You can see the effect of fairy tale therapy in the Winter Country (Kyiv, Academician Glushkov Ave., 1) in the Gulyandia pavilion. Every 40 minutes, the interactive fairy tale “Wonderful Journey” begins here.
