1. any therapy whose ultimate value is in the release of deep-seated, forgotten, or inhibited emotional and psychic pain through open expression and direct experience of anger, sorrow, or hostility in the therapy context. The technique is used, for example, in play therapy and in psychodrama.

2. a form of therapy in which young children reenact anxieties, frightening experiences, and traumatic events with such materials as figurines, stuffed animals, and water guns. [developed in the 1930s by U.S. psychiatrist David M. Levy (1892–1977)]