Therapist's Solution of "Conflicts" and Child's Power to Heal Themself

Chapter Four takes the reader right into the mind of the author-therapist as she discusses her inner discourses and decisions on responses toward a child in drama and outside of drama when she encounters a drama reflecting negative feelings of a child that does not follow a regular development of a story. She compares two dramas with one child that went well and three “uncomfortable” dramas with three children, and explores their entire steps and processes. She singles out causes of her discomfort as: (1) the story does not follow the “four-part organization” of Japanese narratives, (2) the children cannot stay in dramatic reality, (3) the conflict continued with no resolution, and (4) physical violence was used in the drama. She analyzes and evaluates these factors from both Pendzik’s 6-Key Model and Doi’s concept of “ amae ,” the Japanese concept on human relations but enlarged to assess more general interactions of people through a lens of emotional conflict. Paradoxically, reconciliation between the therapist and these children comes outside of the dramas. Then, the therapist realizes that their intensively expressing strong feelings through transference within the dramas was an inevitable expression of their inner feelings and prepared them to reconcile with the therapist in real life, thus giving them the power to heal themselves.