From the author: The case is described with the consent of the client “The most precious and intense activity for children is play. Perhaps we can say that the child at play behaves like a poet, creating his own world in a new order that is pleasing to him" (Freud, 1908). The game is the main bridge between the child’s inner world and the psychologist during the session. This is primarily due to the fact that a child’s life experience is much wider than what he could tell in words. This is the main difference between therapy for adults and children. M. Klein, who developed a method of analyzing children based on observation of play, argued that play for a child is a serious activity, and not banal entertainment or an exercise in mastering the material environment. She understood play as a symbolic expression of the child's conflicts and anxieties, using it as an analytical tool. The symbolic language of the game allows the child to talk without restrictions about the internal experiences that are the cause of the ailments and problems with which they turned to a specialist. I pay attention to what objects the child chooses (people, animals, vehicles, plants), what happens between the toys (competition, war, adventure or game objects do not contact each other at all), what emotions the play space is filled with, how it is organized his behavior in the process. This allows you to understand what motives motivate the child, what worries him, what his main difficulties and problems are. Clinical example. Published with the client’s permission. Session with a 4.5-year-old boy and his mother, the reason for the visit was stuttering. While we were talking with his mother, M. brought a plasticine caterpillar, which he molded strictly according to the sample drawn on the box, so that all the colors and shapes exactly matched . I commented that, apparently, he wanted to show me that he was doing everything right, to which M. nodded. Mom, in turn, said that in the family they set very high standards for M., and also shared the anxiety that had previously tormented her that M. would not be developed enough. So M. had no choice but not to disappoint his parents and strive to do everything perfectly, which led to very high tension and constant fear of making a mistake. So the body of the caterpillar is for M. an objective expression of this pattern. At the next session, as a symbolic payment for the lesson, M. brought a drawing in which he depicted members of his family in the form of robots. M. comments: “Papa robot says: stand still! And we are all standing." The family adheres to very specific, strict rules in relation to M., they are afraid to give him slack, to reduce control, M., in turn, feels a lack of flexibility in relation to himself, taking into account his individual needs and capabilities, he has little room for improvisation, self-expression, following only a clearly formed pattern. M. finds a caterpillar from the last lesson and gets involved in a game with it, depicting a huge wave in the sandbox, as a result of which the caterpillar’s ​​body scatters into pieces “Where is my body?! My body!” At the next lesson, M. decided to continue playing with the caterpillar. He crushed the part of the caterpillar's body that had fallen from the sandbox with his foot, about which he was very sad; when I asked if it was possible to restore this part, he replied that nothing would work, nothing would help it. At this time, he focused all his attention on the shoe with plasticine. I said “part of this caterpillar feels very squashed.” To this M., looking at the shoe, replied “like me.” I asked what made him feel this way, M. said that dad was unhappy and cursed because he did “something wrong.” To do something “wrong” means to be “not like that.” From M.’s game it is clear how much he experiences the fear of not conforming to the ideas of his parents; to do something “wrong” for him is comparable to complete collapse; the played theme with the loss of the caterpillar’s ​​body expresses how much he does not.