Child-Centered Group Play Therapy (CCGPT) has been shown to be an effective, developmentally appropriate, and efficient mental health treatment for young children. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore six play therapists' perceptions of conducting CCGPT in four elementary schools. Three overarching themes emerged from the data:…

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a play-based program on reducing the effects of student's abuse and to improving their self-esteem. To achieve this goal, a sample was selected and composed of 60 male and female abused students. They were divided into two groups: control group and experimental group which both consisted of 30…

Phyllis Booth is a licensed marriage and family therapist, a licensed clinical professional counselor, a registered play therapist and supervisor, and Clinical Director Emeritus of the Theraplay Institute in Evanston, Illinois. Her professional career includes training in clinical psychology at what is now University of Chicago Medicine, teaching…

Low income male preschoolers with externalizing behaviors have continued behavior issues throughout elementary school, middle school, high school, and into adulthood and create stress for their teachers. Because of this, it is important to detect externalizing behaviors early and implement an appropriate intervention. A single subject reversal…

Play therapy expert Terry Kottman and her colleague Kristin Meany-Walen provide a comprehensive update to this spirited and fun text on integrating Adlerian techniques into play therapy. Clinicians, school counselors, and students will find this to be the definitive guide for using Adlerian strategies with children to foster positive growth and…

Outcome research examining the effectiveness of teaching methods in counselor education is sparse. The researchers conducted a qualitative investigation utilizing an instrumental case study to examine the influence of a constructivist-developmental format on a play therapy counseling course in a large CACREP accredited university in the…

Children who are off-task in schools struggle with completing their work and engage in disruptive behaviors. Without intervention, these behaviors tend to worsen, putting them at risk for more serious, ongoing problems throughout life. Group counseling provides opportunities for people to practice socially useful behaviors. Using a single case…

Children's externalizing and off-task behaviors are deemed a major concern for elementary teachers and interfere with the classroom learning environment (Abidin & Robinson, 2002; Shillingford-Butler & Theodore, 2013). Children with these behaviors are at risk of falling behind academically and experiencing ongoing behavioral problems…

"Messy play" is often viewed as a purely ludic play activity in early childhood settings, however, some professionals in therapeutic contexts have understood it as potentially significant for supporting young children who have experienced trauma. This article reports on a study that explored how young children who have experienced trauma…

The current study explored the effects of child-centered group play therapy (CCGPT) on social-emotional assets of kindergarten children and the therapeutic aspect of group sizes in CCGPT outcome. A total of 43 participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention or waitlist control groups. We used Parent and Teacher forms of Social…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a child-centred play training model, filial play therapy, enhances child-teacher relationship and thereby reduces children's internalising problems (such as anxiety/depression and withdrawal) and externalising problems (such as aggressive and destructive behaviour). Sixty teachers (n = 60) and 60…

This paper focuses on an episode of play in a primary school playground in England, which featured a group of children re-enacting elements of the television talk show "The Jeremy Kyle Show". The episode is analysed in the light of work that has identified the key elements of the talk show genre and the children's play is examined in…

This paper reports from the first phase of a study of the inter-professional work of hospital play specialists (HPSs). In this phase, the author aimed to test the utility of Edwards' concept of "relational agency" in inter-professional work in hospital settings. Individual HPSs in two London hospitals were observed for half-day periods,…

The authors used a correlational research design to examine how belief in a just world, political ideology, socioeconomic status of family of origin, and percentage of racial minority clients were related to social justice advocacy attitudes among play therapists. A multiple regression was used to analyze the data. Results indicated that belief in…

In this article, the author synthesizes research from several disciplines to shed light on play's central role in healthy development. Gordon builds on research in attachment theory that correlates secure attachment in infancy with adult well-being to demonstrate how playfulness might be a lifelong outcome of secure attachment and a primary…