Can We Play Now?
Book •
In Can We Play Now?, Nadja Rolli draws on her work as a child and adolescent psychotherapist to map play across five stages—sensory, attachment, constructive, fantasy, and competitive—and explores how missing stages affect adults.
Rolli explains play’s role in brain development, trauma repair, attachment, and the formation of agency, arguing that many adults were pushed into competitive modes too early.
The book combines clinical examples and developmental theory to show how reclaiming play can restore emotional regulation, resilience, and relational capacity.
Rolli also addresses cultural history and modern challenges such as early exposure to screens and gaming.
The work is practical and therapeutic, aimed at both clinicians and adults seeking to recover a sense of entitlement to rest and unproductive, playful time.
Rolli explains play’s role in brain development, trauma repair, attachment, and the formation of agency, arguing that many adults were pushed into competitive modes too early.
The book combines clinical examples and developmental theory to show how reclaiming play can restore emotional regulation, resilience, and relational capacity.
Rolli also addresses cultural history and modern challenges such as early exposure to screens and gaming.
The work is practical and therapeutic, aimed at both clinicians and adults seeking to recover a sense of entitlement to rest and unproductive, playful time.
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Nadja Rolli
On Productivity Guilt, Play, and the Adults Who Never Learned to Rest – Nadja Rolli
