Social isolation caused by COVID threatened psychotherapist-client and instructor-learner contact especially in the child therapy field. In response, the author devised free online Oaklander Model interactive play therapy tools (Sandtray, Puppets, Dollhouse, Projective Cards, Mindfuldraw) which replace their hands-on originals with tabs of images clients choose, place, move, enlarge or shrink, and make act and speak to orchestrate scenes. The author also conducted teleconference training and supervision in their use. Both the digital interventions and instruction continue to attract therapists from some 30 countries, who collaborate to support children from afar. The technological recasting of play techniques and teaching proved to retain and even expand their powers along with their reach. Such expansion confirmed the universal, timeless efficacy of Oaklander’s interventions and approach, and their applicability to virtual platforms. It also increased client access to therapy and therapist access to clinical education, regardless of location and finances. Finally, it revealed advantages of remote play therapy and training: recording sessions or stages of client creations, including from separate devices; shot sharing of clients’ home, household members, pets and meaningful objects for assessment and exploration; environmental sustainability of foregoing transportation, office rental, physical art materials and storage; and construction of an international therapeutic community sharing their knowledge. Periodic polling, current website analytics and a recent formal survey show these techniques and gains have outlasted and outgrown lockdown despite distance, financial hardship and, sometimes, war. Digital therapy, learning and collaboration endure and expand both online and live as the foundation of this network’s dual achievement: a global community of healers and a global extension of healing.

My mentor, Violet Oaklander, who died September 21, 2021, and whom I’ll always miss, wrote a groundbreaking article, “The Many Faces of Anger.”1 This article honors her memory.

Violet saw anger as the least-tolerated and most-misunderstood emotion. She noted that children get so many messages telling them their anger is unacceptable that they find ways to conceal it. They might retroflect anger—turn it inward as stomachaches or headaches. They might anesthetize themselves—space out to lose touch with their rage. Or they might become hyperactive to avoid feeling anything.

When the first article of this series was written in March 2020 we were entering what we expected to be a brief, if global, crisis due to COVID-19 (Oaklander Model in a Time of Crisis). Its title, “Just for Now,” intended to frame therapy for a short time. But that article and a Zoom call to a few colleagues blossomed into a virtual venue where child and adolescent therapists worldwide participated at first weekly, and now monthly, in Zoom calls that have been part training webinars, part community-building, and mostly an opportunity to greet and learn from Violet Oaklander. Since then, we have held 15 Zoom meetings with an average of 80 attendees from 25 countries. Along with the meetings grew unexpected opportunities for international collaboration. Currently the JFN (Just for Now) articles have been translated into 6 languages, and we await similar translations of our guidebook (Oaklander Model Guidebook for Therapists).

Virtual Psychotherapy Session on US 2020 Presidential Election Stress

The days leading up to and following the US election have provoked anxiety for many people. As of the morning of November 6, three days following Election Day, the president-elect of the United States has not yet been officially declared. Many Americans have been following the election closely, with the mapped results making as much sense as this depiction…

The article presents a case example to define, explain, and illustrate use of the Oaklander Model in a telephone or online session and by deploying technology to see a child’s projective work. It begins with concepts basic to the model, includes brief descriptions of children’s varied coping strategies and therapeutic responses to them, and offers specific pointers for telephone or online sessions. Then, the case study of 10-year-old “Mary” shows how current technologies and classic Oaklander techniques—the practical and the projective—might be applied under extraordinary circumstances. I thank Mary and her family for graciously permitting me to reproduce her session notes, words, drawings and likeness to illustrate the use of the Oaklander Model in a time of crisis. Finally, the article suggests further session activities.