Case Study: Academic Stress and Family Dynamics

Express Family Dynmaics with Plush

I asked Moo to choose a plush toy that felt related to, and talk about its personality. Then chose other family members and demonstrated the interaction between the toys.

When choosing family members, Moo immediately picked up the penguin puppet to represent his father. He described his father as very fat, with his head often looking up at the sky, requiring a lot of effort to look forward, so he didn't know much about the people and things around him. The toy representing Moo was called Little Brother, and when the toy family were put together, Little Brother was placed furthest away from his father .

Express your true feeling and resolve inner conflict

Moo said that this father had unrealistic expectations for Little Brother. Even if the Little Brother worked very hard to get an A- to satisfy him, he would still ask why he couldn't get an A+. So Little Brother went back to his room and cried. Then his elder brother came to protect him, used Kame Hame Ha to attack his father, and the father flipped and lie on the floor.

Liz: "Well, Daddy seems to have some feelings this time. But it created a longer distance between the Little Brother and daddy."

Moo then brought the Little Brother in front of his father so that his father could see him. Then he lay down on his father's belly.

Liz: "How does the Little Brother feels when he saw Daddy lying on the floor"

Moo: "So lazy."

Liz: "Yeah, but even so, he don't want to give up on Daddy. He still want Daddy to notice him. His action feels like: I want you to feel my importance, I want you to feel my weight..."

Then Moo helped Daddy and the Little Brother stand up and hug each other .

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Then I spoke for the Little Brother, "In fact, I want to hold you in my arms."

Moo helped Daddy and the Little Brother kissing.

Inner reconciliation

Afterwards, Moo expressed his feelings through musical instruments and then drew comics to tell the story. The story ended with Daddy apologising to Little Brother. Daddy finally realised that his lack of understanding of Little Brother and his unrealistic demand had caused stress and sadness in his son. Afterwards, I suggested Moo rehearse the final scene with toys to reinforce the feeling of inner reconciliation .

Promoting inner strength with Drama Enactment

During the process, I felt that the elder brother was an important companion and protector for the Little Brother. He has been supporting the Little Brother. I asked Moo to deliver a gift to the Little Brother on behalf of the elder brother for encouragement. He drew a card with a picture of the whole family having a party and wrote some encouraging words on it. I asked Moo to hug and say the encouraging words to the Little Brother's plush toy. Afterwards, Moo drew the hugging scene on the card .

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