Dr. Karen Fried is truly the gift that keeps on giving. In addition to her online sand tray and virtual dollhouse, she has now created a website where you can do Online Puppet Shows!
Puppets help kids express emotions that they might not want to share directly. They can project that feeling onto the puppet and feel safer exploring uncomfortable feelings, or they can re-enact traumatic, stressful, or upsetting scenarios.
This website allows a variety of backdrops, diverse cast of puppets to choose from, and actions including “hugging,” “hitting,” and “jumping” to let your puppet show really come to life! Like with her other websites, you simply pull up the page and trade off with your client controlling the screen. Plus, you have none of the hassle of washing and sanitizing like you do with “real” puppets.
Although I have used real puppets in my session, holding them up to the camera and talking through them, this eliminates the issue of whether my client has their own puppets to bring to the appointment. It also makes my puppet interactions feel a lot more “real” because we are both on the same screen.
I highly recommend this as a telehealth intervention!