Abstract
This article offers some reflections on how to work with children who bring their monsters to therapy using play therapy, drawing, and storytelling (Poda, 2011). The author draws on transactional analysis theories of trauma (Clarkson, 1988; Stuthridge, 2006) and script to conceptualize what might be happening with these children at the structural ego state level. Stressing the importance of the therapeutic relationship, an approach is outlined for restructuring ego states using transference, contracting, Berne’s therapeutic operations, and self-reparenting. Case examples illustrate how to conceptualize the child’s relationship to his or her monsters, how the therapist might meet them, and how to domesticate them.