Ann Jernberg (1928-1993)

Professional Life

Ann M. Jernberg was born in Kiel, Germany. She moved to the United States with her family in 1933. She earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago, and later returned to the university as a psychologist, where she served in the Department of Psychology for five years. Jernberg was the senior staff psychologist at the Michael Reese Hospital, and also worked for the LaPorte Community Mental Health Center as chief psychologist.  

Jernberg later became the chief psychologist for the Chicago Head Start Program and held that position for many years, retiring from that capacity in 1982. Through her years of working with children, she developed a unique form of therapy called Theraplay. This technique was targeted to families with preschool children experiencing emotional and psychological difficulties. Jernberg was the author of the book Theraplay and founder of the Theraplay Institute located in Chicago. The organization opened its doors in 1972 and remains a source of treatment and training for thousands of people. 

Contribution to Psychology

In 1967, Jernberg was employed by the newly formed Chicago Head Start program as the Director of Psychological Services. She was given the task of identifying children in need of mental health services and referring them to other facilities for treatment. Due to the lack of mental health services available to children at the time, Jernberg realized the necessity for a therapeutic method that could be implemented at the Head Start Centers in order to meet the needs of the large volume of children in the area.  

With this in mind, Jernberg developed Theraplay, which began initially as an outreach program. Jernberg and her staff recruited outgoing, friendly people to learn the technique and deliver an attachment based play therapy directly to children at the schools. Eventually, the Theraplay Institute was created, with an emphasis on training and administering the Theraplay method. Theraplay is recognized as an innovative and effective form of therapy and is used worldwide to treat children suffering from mental health issues, including orphans in war torn regions, victims of national disasters, and AIDS victims, among others.

Theraplay is a unique form of therapy that integrates various elements of traditional play therapy in order to aid parents and children develop strong attachment relationships. Theraplay incorporates various methods of attachment based play and the model of Theraplay is based on a strong and productive parent-child attachment. The foundation of Theraplay is a combination of Jernberg’s own clinical experiences, as well as the works of Viola Brody, John Bowlby, and Austin Des Lauriers.